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Coinbase lays off around 1,100 employees

coindesk.com

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Re: Coinbase lays off around 1,100 employees

#431

Post by googlryas »

Apocryphon wrote: post #385
googlryas wrote: post #282

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Of course it is a contrived, fantastical scenario. But the point is: Does it meaningfully deviate from the key points for any wealth tax scenario?

A wealth tax scenario, like all taxes in real life, will have its share of exceptions, carve-outs, and loopholes. Meaning the wealth assessment process will inevitably be far more involved than "a weird little cult offered a billion dollars for it." Now, from a parable perspective, does the post mirror the principle of how wealth taxes work? Maybe, if you're willing to equate the entire market (or whatever communal e…

Ok, it is not a weird little cult, but literally everyone in the world who wants my rock because it is so beautiful. I don't see how that tangibly affects any part of the parable - which is forcing me to sell something I own because someone else with more money than I have wants it.

Re: Coinbase lays off around 1,100 employees

#432

Post by aetherson »

yellowapple wrote: post #402
sillysaurusx wrote: post #15

I think if employees feel slighted by being fired, they're fooling themselves. The best mindset is that you could be gone tomorrow. It gives you clarity and purpose. It also happens to be the truth. Coinbase was also extremely generous with severance. 12 weeks plus two for every one year at the company, I think. I've had the experience of being let go without notice and without severance. Devs seem a little more griz…

> If you think billionaires should exist at all That's a big "if". It's pretty dang hard to amass that much wealth without robbing the people around you. That's indeed pretty generous severance-wise, but that $110,000,000 happens to be enough to keep each and every one of those laid-off employees on the payroll for another year (assuming $100k/year salary).

Well, assuming $100k total cost of employment to the company. My guess is that the per-employee total cost of employment to Coinbase is at least twice that.

Re: Coinbase lays off around 1,100 employees

#433

Post by passivate »

Apocryphon wrote: post #143
ipnon wrote: post #107

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My claim is that if these companies weren't useful than they wouldn't exist. People hate Bezos but they spend their money at Amazon. Methinks they doth protest too much!

Amazon is immensely useful, but perhaps they are no longer a net positive to society. The goods and services they provide are certainly useful. But their status as a monopoly prevents a flourishing, competitive market that could address their failings. Amazon as a product is arguably poorer in quality than it used to be: just look at the state of their spammed-out reviews, scam products sold on their platform, etc. T…

There were a lot many years from the time of Amazon's inception till they became a monopoly. It seems like your "what could be" experiment has already been done. There was plenty of opportunity, but nobody managed to build a better competitor to them.

It is a separate argument, but 'more competition' isn't a magical fix to everything. This sort of gating mechanism relies on the end user/consumer having good knowledge, sound judgement, etc. Also what is best for the consumer isn't best for the society. A wild example - For me, as the consumer I'm happy to get an iPhone for $200, but that might mean that Apple pays their employees below US minimum wage.

Re: Coinbase lays off around 1,100 employees

#434

Post by themacguffinman »

Apocryphon wrote: post #254
themacguffinman wrote: post #200

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So what if their product is arguably poorer in quality than it used to be, so what if there are spammed-out reviews or whatever? You're not showing that any of their competitors are better in the eyes of most consumers, and they definitely have competitors, very large ones in fact (eg Walmart, AliExpress, eBay). If you think Amazon is unfairly using their monopoly to keep others out and capture the market, state your…

Consumer choice is binary, but it's not always tied to quality. There are factors like information asymmetry. Superior competitors may not be able to get a word in edgewise when the dominant player is able to blanket the airwaves with its brand. A disproportionately dominant position becomes a kind of monopoly of its own when its reach and resources are so much greater than the next set of competitors. The competitor…

No it's not always tied to quality, it's just tied to what they want. If consumers don't prioritize quality, that's their rightful choice in the market, it's no one else's place to tell them what they should prioritize.

Greater reach and resources is part & parcel of being the top consumer choice. If they blanket the airwaves, if there is some asymmetry, still who cares? You're going to have to show how consumers do not have a choice or how it doesn't help consumers.

Because regardless of how intense Amazon's marketing and reach get, their competitors are still one click away. Finding out about competitors is one search query away, one media article away, or one advertisement away. Frankly, if a consumer is unable to expend the minimal effort to find & choose an Amazon competitor to buy a product, they're basically not trying at all. And not trying is their choice.

Re: Coinbase lays off around 1,100 employees

#435

Post by Grustaf »

chrisseaton wrote: post #150
xtracto wrote: post #92

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> There are plenty of people in the world who would think that anything over $500/month is way more than enough for one person. Should your compensation be reduced to that amount? Disclaimer: I live in a 3rd world country and my salary is 1/3 of what the standard US salary is. YES, I do believe that everybody's compensation (including mine) who are in the top 10% of the population should be decreased/limited. Provide…

> The top 10% of the population hold 70% of the total wealth. That's just crazy and unsustainable. Been sustained so far throughout all of human history.

That particular ratio, if true, is not the issue. Someone being one order of magnitude richer than someone else does not necessarily damage society, the problem is how much the richest 0.1% control.

Re: Coinbase lays off around 1,100 employees

#436

Post by repomies69 »

rib3ye wrote: post #350
Johnny555 wrote: post #45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

People keep pointing to Armstrong's $110M house like it's some sort of injustice. If you think billionaires should exist at all, then that's one of the least-bad injustices imaginable Ok, I'll admit it, billionaires should not exist at all, there should be a heavy wealth tax that makes it hard to become a billionaire. Will a CEO work less hard if he (and his peers) can only ever gain $100M in net worth before a wealt…

By current COIN marketcap he is barely a billionaire. I figure by the end of the month and another rate hike, he will no longer qualify as a billionaire.

That must be incredibly tragic for him.

Re: Coinbase lays off around 1,100 employees

#437

Post by TAForObvReasons »

thethimble wrote: post #382
babyshake wrote: post #325

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Even if doing huge amounts of hiring during good times and quickly pivoting to doing large layoffs during bad times is ethical, it sure does seem wasteful and not indicative of great leadership. Although it does seem to be the norm now, if recent years are any indication.

Well it’s not clear that anyone could have predicted the timing of this downturn. Just a few months ago people were painting a very rosy picture for the future. In that context, metering investment can have a huge opportunity cost as well. I’m not advocating for CB - just suggesting that it’s harder to predict the future than you are implying.

That's still a very employer-centric view. If the company reasonably expects a downturn at some point, it should be preparing with right-sized sustainable hiring. It's not "metering investment" but rather "building a sustainable business". Rushing to hire as many people as possible, then firing during a downturn, creates the impression that employees are cannon fodder.

Re: Coinbase lays off around 1,100 employees

#438

Post by nxm »

tschellenbach wrote: post #346
ausbah wrote: post #316

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>I think if employees feel slighted by being fired, they're fooling themselves. The best mindset is that you could be gone tomorrow. It gives you clarity and purpose. It also happens to be the truth. sorry but this reads like you drank the whole bowl of US corporate kool-aid. the insecurity and stress the comes from not knowing if you'll have a job tomorrow in literal insanity. 14 weeks severance shouldn't be seen an…

It does seem insane to me that healthcare is tied to employment.. that's just crazy

There’s Medicaid for these situations

Re: Coinbase lays off around 1,100 employees

#439

Post by pgodzin »

freyr wrote: post #277
Johnny555 wrote: post #45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

People keep pointing to Armstrong's $110M house like it's some sort of injustice. If you think billionaires should exist at all, then that's one of the least-bad injustices imaginable Ok, I'll admit it, billionaires should not exist at all, there should be a heavy wealth tax that makes it hard to become a billionaire. Will a CEO work less hard if he (and his peers) can only ever gain $100M in net worth before a wealt…

Reminds of a CEO’s tweet yesterday that software engineers making $400k+ are the real problem, and it got lots of likes. Today we day a billion is too much. Where do you draw the line (obviously, start with the billionaires and not with the workers), and who gets to decide?

I don't think engineering salaries are "the real problem" but, they certainly are "a" problem for many companies whose business models don't print cash the same way FAANG companies do but try to compete on comp, and that's what the tweet was getting at.

Re: Coinbase lays off around 1,100 employees

#440

Post by Grustaf »

Aarostotle wrote: post #321
FabHK wrote: post #188

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I am fairly sure inequality is more extreme than that (top 10% hold 70%) at the moment, and it was less bad in the second half of the 20th century. The top US marginal income tax rate was 90% in the 1960s, and 70% in the 1970s, and it did not seem to discourage GDP growth or innovation. https://www.taxpolicycenter.org/statistics/historical-highes...

We live in the most equal time in human history. The actual standard of living of the average person in most developed countries rivals that of royal families from just a couple of centuries ago. Don't confuse monetary inequality with wealth inequality. Measure by the standard of living, not monetary units. What are the actual differences between the life of the average American worker and Jeff Bezos? It's not that b…

The problem with rich people is not that they live too comfortably, but that a person like Bezos can buy an important media property and control the political narrative that millions of people are exposed to.
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