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Comment by kevinventullo | Hacker News Reader

“Should” has nothing to do with it. The owner starts with 100% stake in the company and doles it out as they see fit. If someone is willing to work 40 hours a week for .01% of that, then that’s what they’ve agreed to. Similarly if a VC is willing to spend $X for Y%.

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True. Then we have to examine the power dynamics and decide as a society if additional protections need to be given to workers. After all, there's way more pressure on a worker to provide food and shelter than on an employer to hire someone. It would be interesting to see what a union could come up with as an industry standard contract concerning equity distribution/compensation.

> It would be interesting to see what a union could come up with as an industry standard contract concerning capital distribution/compensation.

I think you mean equity distribution.

EDIT, Had another thought after posting:

Historically, if you had a world changing idea, you had to work your way up the ladder at GE/Bell/HP to get the resources to implement it, and the company didn't grant any equity. Bell Labs employees had a ceremonial signing away of their IP for $1 during onboarding. The idea that founders keep any equity is relatively new and if it's an indicator of a trend, it's likey that equity will be distributed more uniformly in future enterprises IMO.

There are numerous jobs available. No one is forcing you to choose a specific job.

Employees are payed based upon market rate. No one pays you based upon value.

If you think you are more valuable that's when you start your own venture because there is no upper limit on how much you make.

> Employees are payed based upon market rate. No one pays you based upon value.

Really depends on how much value one can provide.

> “Should” has nothing to do with it. The owner starts with 100% stake in the company and doles it out as they see fit.

This isn't a law of the universe. This is a property of our laws. So it is a question of "should", since the people are the ones deciding what laws to have.

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