Citing revenue declines, Airbnb cuts 25% of workforce • Hacker News Board

Re: Citing revenue declines, Airbnb cuts 25% of workforce

#921

Post by LunaSea » Thu, May 07, 2020, 8:17 AM UTC

manigandham wrote: post #887

LunaSea wrote: post #844

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well for one you might but it will be incredibly expensive and probably still cover less than in the Netherlands. Also, the cost means that it is something you can only afford while you are still working. So if you do get hurt and can't work or get fired you lose that privilege. That is also a cost of opportunity that you lose by living in the US and that is not factored into the price of the insurance directly.

You don't have to keep working. Workers compensation, life insurance, long-term care policies all exist. There's really not much different in what's available, only who's responsible for it. In America, you earn and keep more and it's up to you to allocate properly (or not). In other countries, the government does it all for you to ensure there's a base level of support for everyone.

It's not a question of availability it's a question of price.

If you need to pay for a very expensive medical insurance then you can only afford it while employed which you won't be if you have health issues that prevent you from doing so or get fired.

Re: Citing revenue declines, Airbnb cuts 25% of workforce

#922

Post by conanbatt » Thu, May 07, 2020, 11:13 AM UTC

r00fus wrote: post #898

shuckles wrote: post #526

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The USA's unemployment rate in March 2020 (4.4%) was lower than the EU's unemployment rate in January 2020 (6.2%) according to a very casual Google search. I'm curious how you're drawing this. Are you saying the EU has lower unemployment today than it did in January?

It's amusing you post pre-COVID numbers for both regions. Best comparison would be April numbers for both EU and US. The US is around 20% now [1]. The US short-term unemployment numbers are way up, because the US didn't do enough to help small businesses weather the storm, so they laid off their workforce. In contrast the EU supported their businesses and workers and consequently people are taking leave instead of un…

This is an accounting gimmick. The US has clearer unemployment conditions and also has given relief. In countries in the EU (and it varies a lot) you would see they are still employed, but not working and taking a paycut. That's really the same as unemployed.

In any case my comment was about the meaning of having severance in contrast to having a job, not about crisis handling.

Re: Citing revenue declines, Airbnb cuts 25% of workforce

#923

Post by LunaSea » Thu, May 07, 2020, 12:37 PM UTC

manigandham wrote: post #917

LunaSea wrote: post #907

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That you can't get a loan when you don't have collateral which is the case when you are not already wealthy.

Then get a job and save up some collateral. That's how many people start. This is really not that complicated.

But that's not always possible when you don't have a good enough job to save which is the reality for a majority of Americans since they live pacheck to paycheck.

Re: Citing revenue declines, Airbnb cuts 25% of workforce

#924

Post by LunaSea » Thu, May 07, 2020, 12:53 PM UTC

manigandham wrote: post #918

LunaSea wrote: post #908

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Your small companies hire up to 500 people which is nowhere small. Also, it's not because a company is small that the owners are small time business people. The owners might be independently wealthy.

Why don't you look at the actual data: Firms with fewer than 100 workers accounted for 98.2 percent, and firms with fewer than 20 workers made up 89.0 percent. [1] The vast majority are small companies with single-digit employee counts. Add in independent contractors and it's even more skewed. Being an entrepreneur means getting things done with what you have. You don't need to be wealth and instantly go from 0 to 10…

Wrong. 80,5% of all SMEs don't employ anyone (nonemployer firms).

So not only do most Americans do work for multinational companies (53%) but on top of that, 80,5% of the ones working in SMEs are themselves the owners and don't have any employees to speak of.

Which leaves a whopping 19.5% of American SMEs which actually employ workers.

So you're dead wrong.

cf: https://www.sba.gov/sites/default/files/advocacy/2018-Small-...

Re: Citing revenue declines, Airbnb cuts 25% of workforce

#925

Post by what_ever » Thu, May 07, 2020, 5:47 PM UTC

eru wrote: post #919

mav3rick wrote: post #880

Earlier quoted context omitted.

More employee friendly

But why didn't they do it before then?

It was just acceptable before to have a 1 year cliff? Also it was done to placate Nooglers not getting a refresher for the first year (although that didn't make any sense and some Nooglers in 2017 got neither end of the stick).

Re: Citing revenue declines, Airbnb cuts 25% of workforce

#926

Post by taurath » Thu, May 07, 2020, 6:23 PM UTC

asdff wrote: post #786

taurath wrote: post #280

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Devastated housing costs which were on a decade long uptrend before AirBNB existed you mean? Or because its capitalized rentals to a higher extent than the normal purchase/rental market could do?

In the face of a housing crisis, the last thing you want to do is turn perfectly good housing stock into a de facto hotel. There are whole apartment buildings that have been turned into Airbnbs. The only work done in converting them was installing the cheapest flat screen TV possible, some futons and coffee tables from walmart, and a microwave. This maneuver can net a landlord twice as much money a month, and removes…

I think as long as a landlord can make twice the amount of money, its gonna be really hard to keep that down.

It also creates a lot of incentives to increase housing stock though no? If suddenly I can make $4k/mo on an apartment I'm building instead of $2k, wouldn't I want to build more apartments?

We've tried just about everything other than being permissive with new housing. We refuse to scale our most popular areas to live, with the idea that what makes it nice will go away if there's more people. That just makes it exclusive and expensive.

Re: Citing revenue declines, Airbnb cuts 25% of workforce

#927

Post by CamperBob2 » Thu, May 07, 2020, 9:07 PM UTC

LunaSea wrote: post #909

manigandham wrote: post #886

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well that's the point. US has lower regulations and more fluid employment which leads to bigger and more innovative companies. America isn't as nationally protectionist as China though, although that will now change with this pandemic.

America is very protectionist actually. And what you call fluid employment I call bad jobs.

And what you call fluid employment I call bad jobs.

I guess that explains why people do whatever they can to migrate from the US to your country.

They do that, right?

Re: Citing revenue declines, Airbnb cuts 25% of workforce

#928

Post by acituan » Thu, May 07, 2020, 10:57 PM UTC

fourmyle wrote: post #912

acituan wrote: post #903

Earlier quoted context omitted.

But you won’t be 30 and healthy forever. Medical costs skyrocket with old age, at a scale that can easily make your 100k/year savings irrelevant.

$100k/yr savings over 10 years is $1M. Were you assuming someone would blow the money?

To give one idea, nursing home room cost is 100k/year. Considering the possibility of chronic conditions, specialized treatments and overall increase in healthcare usage, in the span between 70-90 it is very easy go over >2M.

Re: Citing revenue declines, Airbnb cuts 25% of workforce

#929

Post by rhizome » Fri, May 08, 2020, 5:55 AM UTC

eatbitseveryday wrote: post #736

adwn wrote: post #680

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Smallpox is not extinct. I beg to differ: "Through the success of the global eradication campaign, smallpox was finally pushed back to the horn of Africa and then to a single last natural case, which occurred in Somalia in 1977. A fatal laboratory-acquired case occurred in the United Kingdom in 1978. The global eradication of smallpox was certified, based on intense verification activities in countries, by a commis…

Smallpox is not extinct: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Smallpox_virus_retention_contr... > The debate centers on whether or not the last two remnants of the virus known to cause smallpox, which are kept in tightly controlled government laboratories in the United States and Russia, should finally and irreversibly be destroyed.

Yep.

Re: Citing revenue declines, Airbnb cuts 25% of workforce

#930

Post by eru » Fri, May 08, 2020, 8:44 AM UTC

what_ever wrote: post #925

eru wrote: post #919

Earlier quoted context omitted.

But why didn't they do it before then?

It was just acceptable before to have a 1 year cliff? Also it was done to placate Nooglers not getting a refresher for the first year (although that didn't make any sense and some Nooglers in 2017 got neither end of the stick).

Thanks!