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A follow up to Coinbase being a mission focused company

blog.coinbase.com

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Re: A follow up to Coinbase being a mission focused company

#101

Post by CarelessExpert »

bdamm wrote: post #81

Companies aren't generally supposed to be political. Is the story here that Coinbase is offering a severance for employees that feel the company should be doing more? Seems like an incentivized quit.

> Companies aren't generally supposed to be political.

I honestly don't understand how you could believe that.

Every oil and gas company or tobacco company has been historically engaged in politics.

IBM and BMW famously enabled the Nazi regime during WWII.

Union busting and strike breaking throughout the 70s and 80s was entirely political.

Silicon Valley, in general, heavily invests in political lobbying, including Coinbase itself!

Re: A follow up to Coinbase being a mission focused company

#102

Post by vonmoltke »

heavyset_go wrote: post #29
vmception wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> COBRA alone would eat up most of the severance. A single software engineer paying for full price for high premium plan on COBRA would be spending around $400[1], over the whole 18 months of doing that it would be $7,200 which would be less than one month's paycheck on a $160,000 salary. A cursory look at h1bdata.info shows that Coinbase pays plenty of H1B's that much, on the low side. Your view is a little exaggera…

> A software engineer paying for full price for high premium plan on COBRA would be spending around $400 Last time I continued health insurance via COBRA, I paid nearly $2k a month in premiums alone.

I just estimated mine, and I would pay about $700/month. A stiff increase to be sure, but easily manageable if I was getting six months salary.

Re: A follow up to Coinbase being a mission focused company

#103

Post by duked »

heavyset_go wrote: post #29
vmception wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> COBRA alone would eat up most of the severance. A single software engineer paying for full price for high premium plan on COBRA would be spending around $400[1], over the whole 18 months of doing that it would be $7,200 which would be less than one month's paycheck on a $160,000 salary. A cursory look at h1bdata.info shows that Coinbase pays plenty of H1B's that much, on the low side. Your view is a little exaggera…

> A software engineer paying for full price for high premium plan on COBRA would be spending around $400 Last time I continued health insurance via COBRA, I paid nearly $2k a month in premiums alone.

I also want to share that I paid for COBRA $1,660 a month for for my family coverage (spouse + 2 kids) so $400 is probably not true in many cases even if single it seems really a low estimate

Re: A follow up to Coinbase being a mission focused company

#104

Post by twmahna »

blck wrote: post #15

I don't think it can be understated how much saying 'no politics' is a political statement. Supporting the status quo is a political statement. And supporting the status quo in this political climate is a strange hill to plant your flag on.

> I don't think it can be understated how much saying 'no politics' is a political statement.

I disagree, and I think you're grossly overstating it.

I can see how you could characterize their stance as "supporting the status quo". But, there are varying degrees of "support", and this is pretty much the lowest degree of "support" imaginable.

Put another way, you're painting this as "with us or against us" when in reality there's a spectrum of support. Coinbase is standing just SLIGHTLY off center in one direction.

> And supporting the status quo in this political climate is a strange hill to plant your flag on.

Why do you think it's strange? The vast majority of employees prefer a work environment that is stripped of political conversation. And, such an environment is more conducive to focus and productivity.

Re: A follow up to Coinbase being a mission focused company

#105

Post by ccleve »

blck wrote: post #15

I don't think it can be understated how much saying 'no politics' is a political statement. Supporting the status quo is a political statement. And supporting the status quo in this political climate is a strange hill to plant your flag on.

If by "status quo" you mean "Donald Trump is President", does your view change if Biden wins? Will the status quo be ok, and will it therefore be ok to ban political activity in the workplace?

The problem with the view that activism is ok if the current administration is objectionable is that the "status quo" changes from cycle to cycle.

Presidential politics is only a very small part of political activity in the US (though it is the most visible). What if your frame of reference is state and local politics? Is political activism in the workplace ok if you don't like the local school board?

Re: A follow up to Coinbase being a mission focused company

#108

Post by cltby »

Spivak wrote: post #80
cltby wrote: post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You are correct in your "understatement" claim, though I suspect unintentionally so. Yes, "avoiding politics" cuts into time you could be spending advancing progressive politics. So does writing software. So does watching a movie with your spouse. So does sleeping. So does every single thing that isn't literally "advancing progressive politics." "No politics = politics" is an utterly vacuous statement.

The stance "I am now and forever apolitical regardless of the state of the world or how political decisions affect me or others" is true no politics. The stance "I am avoiding politics because there's nothing worth my time to be an activist about but I would if that changed and political decisions started seriously affecting me, my family, or my friends" is "the status quo is fine." The stance "I'm avoiding politics…

There are lots of reasons, good and bad, to avoid politics. But to claim that doing so is inherently political... isn't saying anything. To the extent it's true, it's trivially so. And to the extent it's non-trivial, it's completely false.

Re: A follow up to Coinbase being a mission focused company

#110

Post by SpicyLemonZest »

Spivak wrote: post #80
cltby wrote: post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You are correct in your "understatement" claim, though I suspect unintentionally so. Yes, "avoiding politics" cuts into time you could be spending advancing progressive politics. So does writing software. So does watching a movie with your spouse. So does sleeping. So does every single thing that isn't literally "advancing progressive politics." "No politics = politics" is an utterly vacuous statement.

The stance "I am now and forever apolitical regardless of the state of the world or how political decisions affect me or others" is true no politics. The stance "I am avoiding politics because there's nothing worth my time to be an activist about but I would if that changed and political decisions started seriously affecting me, my family, or my friends" is "the status quo is fine." The stance "I'm avoiding politics…

Have the people you've met specifically told you this is their stance? I'm worried you may be misunderstanding. I and almost all apolitical people I know fall in the first camp; I don't think the status quo is fine, but I also don't think that engaging in politics all the time improves it.
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