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Stripe are an engineering first company. You even see the Collison brothers posting here on a regular basis. Creating great tech is built into the DNA of the co
by cecida 6y ago
Stripe are an engineering first company. You even see the Collison brothers posting here on a regular basis. Creating great tech is built into the DNA of the company.
Great to see them investing further in their home country as well, and mentioning that some of their global leadership team will be based in Dublin.
- p1necone 6y agoIreland is also a tax haven, but sure, they're benevolently investing in their home country, that's totally what it is.
- warent 6y agoThey never implied anything about motive. Really, why does motive even matter? Opposing motives can meet on the same positive result. It happens all the time with humans; whether it's two friends, or a corporation of 50,000 people, or a nation of 300 million. Your pessimism seems to ignore the fact that this is a good thing regardless.
- fbelzile 6y agoThey were quoted saying the move "cements [their] Irish roots [and] provides enough space to gradually expand our team." It'd be a breath of fresh air if CEO's could just say it like it is. I think more people would trust their brand and be more willing to invest in them. Our inner monologue wouldn't have had to fill in the blank with a possible hidden motive. Addressing the most common reason why companies "move" to Ireland could have been an opportunity to build trust.
- disgruntledphd2 6y agoBut the brothers are actually Irish, and seem pretty invested in Ireland. Unlike in the case of almost every other tech CEO, who play up features of Ireland that they don't have experience with. Like, I am very glad that the Irish government supported these brothers, and very sad that the Irish banks refused to work with them when they tried to start Stripe in Ireland.
- ergocoder 6y agoIt's an added benefit. That's good, no? Or are you saying all Irish businesses are bad because they are based in the tax haven. If you don't invest in developing your home country, which country should you focus on? Or we can throw a dart at a map and choose whatever country the dart lands on?
- edoceo 6y agoThe dart idea might give us better distribution? Throw a dart and solve problems/invest in solutions for where it sticks. Mostly be fixing ocean problems but I'm OK with that.
- atonse 6y agoWouldn’t this just mean that countries with larger land mass get more investment rather than countries with more people?
- edoceo 6y agoWell, (my) darts aren't accurate, so, maybe? I couldn't hit Belgium from 3m away but I probably couldn't hit USA either. I'm thinking water still wins. And it depends on the map projection too. Maybe the dart is to focus on that specific circular area, like 10km radius or something? Or maybe every group gets an equal slice on the dart board? Just something to help distribution rather than some money-motivated/short-term-outrage method we seem to have now.
- ergocoder 6y agoAh, my snarky comment turns into a legit technical question. Well, throwing a dart wouldn't be too bad though....
- atlasunshrugged 6y agoThis is fun! To test the theory I just threw a pointy pen at the map I have hanging on my wall 5x - 3x water, 1x Ethiopia, 1x USA. Unfortunately I have to do some real work otherwise I'd do a few hundred more and see where we ended up edit: Looking at my map, I think they arbitrarily shrank the size of the oceans to prioritize landmass (it's one of those ones where you scratch off the countries you've been to), so it's quite possible that the proportion of darts hitting water would be higher normally
- cecida 6y agoMost of the loop holes have been closed in Ireland over the past few years. I'd look at the Netherlands, Malta or Luxembourg these days if you're looking for shady booking accounting practices. It helps that the Collisons' are from Ireland, but there's also a highly educated workforce, native English speakers, a pro-business government, world class backbone internet connectivity, favourable timezone, plenty of renewables on the electricity grid.
- BelenusMordred 6y agoI always read comments like this as: "Every country with lower corporate tax rates than my own is a tax haven" If a company does business within your borders while your army looks on and the populace waxes lyrical about it being unjust, who is really at fault for that? Do foreign countries not have the right of sovereignty to make their own laws and tax rates?
- elcomet 6y agoNo. At least not if you're part of a free trade union like europe.
- BelenusMordred 6y agoI partially own a company in the EU, the neighbouring countries have different laws and wildly different company tax rates, care to elaborate on your assertive "no" here? Last I looked countries in the EU also set their own tax rates. Feel free to prove me wrong on that matter, we are in a sub-thread about Ireland being a tax haven if you need a reminder.
- elcomet 6y agoSorry it was not clear, I didn't mean that all countries in europe have the same taxes. I was saying that they should in my opinion.
- disgruntledphd2 6y agoJust as an FYI, every tech company invests in some Irish presence, for the tax benefits. However, most of them don't put engineering there, and a lot of the leadership is often in London. That's the context of the post that you replied to, so that you can maybe understand more of the nuances.