Canada

Shopify CEO should shut the fuck up and pay more taxes to fund our public services including education.

Worked at Shopify for over two years and left voluntarily ahead of wave three of mass layoffs. Watched dozens of great people get shafted for cost-cutting. And I am still close with someone who trains our overseas replacements. To be clear, I have zero bones to pick with our peers working overseas, they're also great people. What I have a problem with is Shopify's explosive growth over lockdowns necessitating over-hiring (in their words) and meanwhile the user base nearly tripled over the same period.

They didn't lay people off because the workload eased up. They did it because they reached peak inflection enshittify status. They trimmed thousands of locals, contracted out for pennies on the dollar, and wall street and the enterprise clients now know they're willing to spill blood to thrive. Shopify is now part of the tech cool kids club.

It's not even ironic that they don't want to chip in for the Canadian tax base. They don't need Canada anymore. They're only staying here on paper because our legal system is more forgiving than almost anywhere else. They're laughing, heartily.

"Just grind harder because I'm not rich enough yet!"

This is the kind of attitude that can turn a relatively minor increase in capital gains taxes into "Get out the guillotine!" by pissing people off.

I wish people just come out and say what they want instead making these long ass allegorical speeches. The guy wants subsidies.

Lütke compared the increase in capital gains taxes to levies on cigarettes to illustrate how governments typically put a higher price on activities that it wants to discourage. “To tax innovation, you’ll see the same thing,” he warned.

Canada says that Shopify CEO needs to pay his fair share or stfu