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Comment by grumpyprole | Hacker News Reader

Completely agree. I don't know why you are getting downvoted, capitalism in its present form is clearly broken. The payout sum here is ludicrous, it is certainly not justified in terms of value created for society. This money has to come from somewhere and ultimately the common folk will be paying the price.

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Obviously someone thought it was valuable

Who are we to judge what price you put on things and what you are willing to pay?

no one is being forced to do anything here

I don't think "no one is being forced to do anything here" is justification for the unprecedented inequality and the existence of billionaires.

Neumann built (or faked if you prefer) something and someone else saw it and decided they wanted him to have 1.7bn in exchange for it

I don’t see how anyone else’s net worth is at play here

As I said elsewhere, it ultimately affects our pension pots. The "someone" you mention are the executives who take risks at the shareholders expense.

Isn't the money coming - if it comes - from SoftBank? Would it be better for the common folk if they kept it?

Better for our pension funds, yes. The stock price of SoftBank has halved in value over this event. I'm expected to fund my old age using stocks.

The stock price halved because WeWork failed, regardless of his payout.

The money doesn't come from thin air. If SoftBank paid it out, the shareholders lose out even more so.

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