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Let’s be conservative and say Armstrong has just a net worth of the house he bought: 150,000,000. If the average employee’s salary is 150,000, Armstrong makes 1

Let’s be conservative and say Armstrong has just a net worth of the house he bought: 150,000,000. If the average employee’s salary is 150,000, Armstrong makes 1,000 times more than them. Does this seem fair? Does he deserve higher compensation for his entrepreneurial skills? Absolutely. But 1,000? It’s hard for us to imagine the scale of 1,000 times greater than something but it seems excessive (and remember, this is being extremely conservative). Does he really work 1,000 times harder than the average employee? These aren’t rhetorical questions by the way. I genuinely want to know, what do you think?

daenz 4y ago
You ignored my response to your post completely and re-iterated the exact same point, so I don't think you are listening or actually care to hear what I think, because if you did, you would know that I already answered you.
Dma54rhs 4y ago
Programmers wages in America are for the vast majority of the world obscene as well. It depends where do you draw the line, American programmer is most likely the 1% for the world.
- uncomputation 4y ago
  Don’t really see the relevance here? America is also more expensive than the majority of the world. I’m not comparing the wealth of impoverished people to the average American programmer. I am comparing the wealth of Coinbase employees to the wealth of the Coinbase CEO, whose company is successful only because of those employees. If the American programmer is global 1%, then Armstrong would be global 0.001% so the inequality isn’t changed.
ajhurliman 4y ago
If it's really that unfair, why don't you just become an entrepreneur?
- karpierz 4y ago
  If winning the lottery is so great, why don't you just become a lotto winner?
  - daenz 4y ago
    Great analogy actually. The founders own the lottery ticket, but they pay employees cold hard cash despite the fact that the lottery ticket will likely be worthless. When the founder lose the lottery, and lose all of the unpaid hours and resources they personally put into buying the ticket, they don't demand employees reimburse them and share in the losses. But on the rare chance that they win the lottery, we have to have conversations like this about how "unfair" it is that they owned the ticket, despite paying everyone what they agreed to be paid. So the point that the parent was making was "go buy your own ticket," not "go win the lottery."
    - anon2020dot00 4y ago
      The parent was making no point but was making an unreasonable argument in line of "No one can criticize, but if you believe that then why don't you make a profit?". Similar to people who say "if crypto is a scam, why don't you short it?" There are various reasons why people choose to or not choose to become an entrepreneur or why people choose to or not to short something. It doesn't mean just because a person doesn't want to be an entrepreneur, then capitalism is perfect. The argument is a strawman where-in the original discussion was about billionaire entrepreneurs and how much is a fair reward to them. We understand the entrepreneur deserve to be rewarded but the original question is up to what extent. Like how in some EU countries, CEO pay is capped.
      - ajhurliman 4y ago
        They deserve to be rewarded by what the market will bear. By introducing ceilings on their income you'd be stifling people's will to "buy the lottery ticket". I can't wrap my head around why people think they know better than the market.
- 4y ago
Kiro 4y ago
No, I don't expect to get profit share from the company I work at unless it's written in the contract. Are you serious? I don't care if the owners work 0 hours a week. It's their company and if I wasn't happy with my compensation I would look for another job.

daenz 4y ago

You ignored my response to your post completely and re-iterated the exact same point, so I don't think you are listening or actually care to hear what I think, because if you did, you would know that I already answered you.

Dma54rhs 4y ago

Programmers wages in America are for the vast majority of the world obscene as well. It depends where do you draw the line, American programmer is most likely the 1% for the world.

uncomputation 4y ago
Don’t really see the relevance here? America is also more expensive than the majority of the world. I’m not comparing the wealth of impoverished people to the average American programmer. I am comparing the wealth of Coinbase employees to the wealth of the Coinbase CEO, whose company is successful only because of those employees. If the American programmer is global 1%, then Armstrong would be global 0.001% so the inequality isn’t changed.

ajhurliman 4y ago

If it's really that unfair, why don't you just become an entrepreneur?

karpierz 4y ago
If winning the lottery is so great, why don't you just become a lotto winner?
- daenz 4y ago
  Great analogy actually. The founders own the lottery ticket, but they pay employees cold hard cash despite the fact that the lottery ticket will likely be worthless. When the founder lose the lottery, and lose all of the unpaid hours and resources they personally put into buying the ticket, they don't demand employees reimburse them and share in the losses. But on the rare chance that they win the lottery, we have to have conversations like this about how "unfair" it is that they owned the ticket, despite paying everyone what they agreed to be paid. So the point that the parent was making was "go buy your own ticket," not "go win the lottery."
  - anon2020dot00 4y ago
    The parent was making no point but was making an unreasonable argument in line of "No one can criticize, but if you believe that then why don't you make a profit?". Similar to people who say "if crypto is a scam, why don't you short it?" There are various reasons why people choose to or not choose to become an entrepreneur or why people choose to or not to short something. It doesn't mean just because a person doesn't want to be an entrepreneur, then capitalism is perfect. The argument is a strawman where-in the original discussion was about billionaire entrepreneurs and how much is a fair reward to them. We understand the entrepreneur deserve to be rewarded but the original question is up to what extent. Like how in some EU countries, CEO pay is capped.
    - ajhurliman 4y ago
      They deserve to be rewarded by what the market will bear. By introducing ceilings on their income you'd be stifling people's will to "buy the lottery ticket". I can't wrap my head around why people think they know better than the market.
4y ago

Kiro 4y ago

No, I don't expect to get profit share from the company I work at unless it's written in the contract. Are you serious? I don't care if the owners work 0 hours a week. It's their company and if I wasn't happy with my compensation I would look for another job.