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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

#251

Post by [deleted] »

joezydeco wrote: post #176
kingboss wrote: post #152

Wasn't this guy one of Paul Graham's darlings? Weren't the "geniuses" at YCombinator invested in this pile of trash? I would really like one of those "insightful" posts from pg telling us how to pick winners right about now.

We went over this 9 years ago. When you posted anything negative and mentioned YC in the headline, the mods edited the headline. When Coinbase went dark during the first crypto winter (or was it the second?), asking for some/any help here was ridiculed by the YC powers that be (i.e pg)

[deleted]

Re: Coinbase lays off around 1,100 employees

#252

Post by Johnny555 »

heliodor wrote: post #239
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…

Taxing billionaires is a simplistic knee-jerk reaction that doesn't address the actual problems people have. It just feeds people's hate. Consider that people have a lot of problems with Amazon's practices. So suddenly, everyone is yelling to tax the hell out of Bezos. But no one has the drive to actually plug the holes that allowed him to make so much money in the first place. All kinds of employee injustices, envir…

I don't expect a billionaire tax to have any impact on Amazon's business practices, that doesn't make any sense. Amazon's treatment of employees is a separate issue from a wealth tax.

I just don't think that any one person should have the kind of power that comes from amassing a $100B+ fortune.

Re: Coinbase lays off around 1,100 employees

#253

Post by dlp211 »

toephu2 wrote: post #184
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…

> if it meant equalizing opportunities for everybody It doesn't though. Taxing the rich, limiting the existence of billionaires is not going to do anything for equalizing opportunities. If you think so, then please tell me the name of one efficiently-run government organization?

> If you think so, then please tell me the name of one efficiently-run government organization?

Please let this trope die. The US government is generally, and especially when it comes to welfare programs, efficient.

Re: Coinbase lays off around 1,100 employees

#254

Post by Apocryphon »

themacguffinman wrote: post #200
Apocryphon wrote: post #143

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

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 competitors you list also aren't head-on in competition with Amazon. Aliexpress predominantly serves non-American markets. eBay, like it, is an auction site. Shopify does not have one central market, it's completely decentralized. Walmart is the most similar to Amazon, and perhaps with its acquisition of Jet.com and its growing investments in ecommerce, it may yet prove to be a lasting competitor. Stay tuned.

Re: Coinbase lays off around 1,100 employees

#255

Post by pojzon »

criley2 wrote: post #186
chrisseaton wrote: post #150

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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.

Historically it was much, much worse. The only way you can make an argument for saying inequality is greater now (when global poverty/subsistence farming is at the lowest % since human settlement 12000 years ago) is to point to the sheer amount of wealth we generate compared to any other period and nit pick about it's allocation. That's fine, but if you want to go back to farming for your life, like most humans for m…

Thats completely true, tho a peasent was working for his master a lot less than we currently do for our masters.

When we get 3days work week and 4 days of „time for my stuff” we can go back to discussing that.

Re: Coinbase lays off around 1,100 employees

#256

Post by ihumanable »

missedthecue wrote: post #172
unethical_ban wrote: post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

With the context of what wealth inequality is doing to society and what political power raw money brings to people, I posit there is a line where it is wrong.

Bezos is probably the most unpopular person in Washington. We don't have a president Bloomberg. I submit to you that you are vastly overestimating the amount of political power having money automatically brings someone.

Power and office are two different things. Someone can exercise a great deal of power in advancing or killing legislation while never holding office and allowing all the office holders to call them names on TV.

What matters is what policies are enacted. Here's a nice video on the topic that summarizes a Princeton study https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5tu32CCA_Ig

Re: Coinbase lays off around 1,100 employees

#257

Post by kansface »

FabHK wrote: post #188
chrisseaton wrote: post #150

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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.

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...

No one actually paid those rates, so it goes. The narrative is that part of lowering the rates was closing the loop holes...

Re: Coinbase lays off around 1,100 employees

#258

Post by [deleted] »

RyanHamilton wrote: post #249
criley2 wrote: post #186

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Historically it was much, much worse. The only way you can make an argument for saying inequality is greater now (when global poverty/subsistence farming is at the lowest % since human settlement 12000 years ago) is to point to the sheer amount of wealth we generate compared to any other period and nit pick about it's allocation. That's fine, but if you want to go back to farming for your life, like most humans for m…

What source are you basing that on? You can find countless sources that show the 0.1% owning an ever greater share: https://www.theguardian.com/business/2014/nov/13/us-wealth-i... "Over the past three decades, the share of household wealth owned by the top 0.1% has increased from 7% to 22%."

[deleted]

Re: Coinbase lays off around 1,100 employees

#259

Post by eropple »

hpkuarg wrote: post #178
Swenrekcah wrote: post #124

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is the real problem. In theory it could be argued that a wealth tax and estate tax are the only really fair taxes in a capitalist economy. He who owns then capital is king, so tax the capital. But in reality it would as you say force all sorts of unwanted liquidation and monetisation of assets just to pay the tax.

Land value tax is the only really fair tax.

I used to think this, but over time I changed my mind. Plenty of capital, particularly in an increasingly digital economy, requires no land, and ignoring that privileges that digital capital even more than just not being tied to physical space does already.

Re: Coinbase lays off around 1,100 employees

#260

Post by Johnny555 »

evandale wrote: post #196
CardenB wrote: post #182

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Maybe it is less about the tax revenue and more about preventing power imbalance. Why is it good to have so much power concentrated in the hands of one person?

I firmly believe Musk, Gates, and Buffet to name a few do more good with their money than if any government got their hands on it. Not all the billionaires are bad.

I firmly believe Musk, Gates, and Buffet to name a few do more good with their money than if any government got their hands on it. Not all the billionaires are bad.

A side effect of a wealth tax is that instead of wealthy people building wealth that's just going to be taxed away, it would incentivize funding charitable foundations like the Gates Foundation. Bill Gates has done a lot of good with his foundation, but that doesn't meant that one person should control that much money.

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