[danaris]

The amounts of money involved can absolutely spell life and death for people not lucky enough to have been born into the top 1%.

"White collar crime" generally has vastly broader effects than what we normally think of when we talk about crime; it's just harder to see because the effects are not as immediate or obvious. Livelihoods destroyed by layoffs to juice the stock price; land, water, and air poisoned by pollutants released because paying the fine is cheaper than actually cleaning them up; people dying because they can no longer afford the insulin they need to live after the price was raised absurd amounts purely to increase profits...

Just because the CEOs aren't physically on a ship where everyone's lives depend on making good decisions in times of crisis doesn't mean they aren't responsible for incalculable pain, suffering, misery, and death.

[jefftk]

Are you saying this Coinbase layoff will likely kill people?

[danaris]

I'm saying any large layoff has a decent chance of making some people homeless—either because they weren't making enough before to save money, or because they were riding an unrealistic expectation of growth (that the company and entire industry are often actively selling you) and bet too much on it (the latter being what I'd guess more likely in this case, based on my assumptions about the kind of money Coinbase would've been paying). And once you're homeless, you're at much higher risk for all kinds of problems, including dying in a variety of unpleasant ways.

[ghiculescu]

This seems highly exaggerated.

If someone really over leveraged themselves so much, at some point you can’t blame their employer.

[hgsgm]

By that theory, Coinbase already saved their lives since they'd be homeless if they weren't hired.