Fantastic! People never go out of business, but businesses do, take care of people not some fictitious entity.
“Today I cut my pay to $0. I'm committed to laying off 0 of our employees.”
181–190 of 193 posts
Re: “Today I cut my pay to $0. I'm committed to laying off 0 of our employees.”
#182Is he the majority shareholder? If so, is he really making a sacrifice here or just deferring when or how he is getting returns.
This is exactly what I was thinking. This is an expensive (?) HR and PR Ad. In 10 years the popularity of the company should be higher than today, the company will be sold and gutted.
Someone who is going to such lengths to save their employees should at least be given the benefit of doubt.
He did something similar 7 years ago, so I don’t think he has some ulterior motive with all this or a grand plan. IDK, Seems like a great guy to me.
Re: “Today I cut my pay to $0. I'm committed to laying off 0 of our employees.”
#183Earlier quoted context omitted.
If a 50% drop in expected revenue _growth_ causes you to default on your debt you are either a startup that had trouble raising money, in which case now you know that you do not have a viable business plan, or you are running a completely unsustainable business that only existed because of easy access to cheap debt the past couple of years.
Common misconception. It’s not uncommon for companies to use leverage to fuel growth. High yield venture debt is often tied to growth metrics. It’s not a mistake to operate a company using venture debt. In a highly competitive market, if you don’t lever up, your competitors will eat your market.
It’s totally viable to have a no growth business. Trustful clients, steady income, no debts. I’m lucky but for now there is nearly no impact on my web agency. And even if activity dropped to 0 we have cash for a few months to pay salaries. I always aimed for a rock solid balance sheet, and a bailout of our over leveraged competitors would be very unfair.
Re: “Today I cut my pay to $0. I'm committed to laying off 0 of our employees.”
#184Earlier quoted context omitted.
Well you see it was a mistake to lever up because now your company's failed. Bailing out companies that got leveraged up to their eyeballs just rewards companies that take as much risk as possible. Does that sound healthy to you?
Welcome to business. This is how it works.
So the collective owes you a bailout, so you can gamble some more?
Re: “Today I cut my pay to $0. I'm committed to laying off 0 of our employees.”
#185Earlier quoted context omitted.
Taxation is the skim. A secure (protected from "borrowing, just this one time, I promise, don't worry I'll put this fancy piece of paper in the box as a replacement") kitty containing these funds, is something else entirely.
Norway provides ample guidance here. They have what, a trillion dollar sovereign wealth fund, invested exclusively in non-Norwegian assets, locked away for the rainy day when oil runs out or becomes valueless. That day may now be upon them.
It's easier to do when you have massive oil reserves and a small population, however, Norway has done an absolutely top notch job imho. I 100% agree with you that we should be looking, and very closely, at Norway and any other countries whose policies in any area seem to be working exceptionally well.
I wonder if doing that would be considered a loss of face in some way.
Re: “Today I cut my pay to $0. I'm committed to laying off 0 of our employees.”
#186Earlier quoted context omitted.
I don’t know how this works in the US, but in Iceland they are offering loans with 50% backing from the state. Meaning that if they fail to pay back the state will pay 50%. This is effectively a grant in all but name since the company has no intensive to pay, but full incentive to have have the state pay.
In the US, small businesses ( https://www.npr.org/2020/03/26/821457551/whats-inside-the-se... > Forgivable loans: There is $350 billion allocated for the Small Business Administration to provide loans of up to $10 million per business. Any portion of that loan used to maintain payroll, keep workers on the books or pay for rent, mortgage and existing debt could be forgiven, provided workers stay employed through the e…
I found this which has the full text of the bill and a summary.
https://www.sbia.org/resources-for-small-businesses-impacted...
Re: “Today I cut my pay to $0. I'm committed to laying off 0 of our employees.”
#187Earlier quoted context omitted.
Well you see it was a mistake to lever up because now your company's failed. Bailing out companies that got leveraged up to their eyeballs just rewards companies that take as much risk as possible. Does that sound healthy to you?
Welcome to business. This is how it works.
ISTM Congress just decided that. In the absence of their recent bailout decision, business would work in some other fashion, which many taxpayers would perceive as more fair.
Re: “Today I cut my pay to $0. I'm committed to laying off 0 of our employees.”
#188Earlier quoted context omitted.
The U.S. could give each household ~$15k instead of trying the trickle-down experiment again. This is not a bailout, it’s another transfer of wealth using the same model that was prototyped during the last financial crisis.
Guess what happens when everybody has $15k more money to buy stuff and there's no companies left to produce said stuff...
Not all firms are leveraged out their asses. Those firms with stronger balance sheets will be producing all the stuff we'll need. The other kind of firm will be quickly forgotten.
Re: “Today I cut my pay to $0. I'm committed to laying off 0 of our employees.”
#189Earlier quoted context omitted.
"And the principle of really existing free market theory is: free markets are fine for you, but not for me. That’s, again, near a universal. So you — whoever you may be — you have to learn responsibility, and be subjected to market discipline, it’s good for your character, it’s tough love, and so on, and so forth. But me, I need the nanny State, to protect me from market discipline, so that I’ll be able to rant and r…
First, this is nothing like 2008, to which it's being compared. In 2008 you had misbehaving companies taking huge risks with the (correct) assumption that they were too big to fail. But what we have now is the government forcing businesses closed. It only makes sense that the government provide some assistance to those companies. It feels great to quote Chomsky and to feel morally pure, I've certainly done it. But th…
...you would not like the result of that purity...
The marketing, at least, is exactly like 2008. With the benefit of hindsight, we find that we don't like the results of impurity. The logical response is to choose more purity this time.
Re: “Today I cut my pay to $0. I'm committed to laying off 0 of our employees.”
#190Earlier quoted context omitted.
Well you see it was a mistake to lever up because now your company's failed. Bailing out companies that got leveraged up to their eyeballs just rewards companies that take as much risk as possible. Does that sound healthy to you?
Welcome to business. This is how it works.
It only works like that because we dont let you fail. We should change that.