Forever in debt to your priceless advice
By 
Today in the American meritocracy, the venture capitalists who lost tons of money betting on Adam Neumann have rewarded Newmann with a huge payday for having built a business remarkable only for its prodigious ability to lose money:
Mr. Neumann, who was forced out as chief executive after pushback from prospective investors scuttled the IPO, has the right to sell $970 million of shares, or about one-third of his stake, in a so-called tender offer in which SoftBank will buy up to $3 billion in WeWork stock from employees and investors.
The Japanese conglomerate, which already owns about a third of the company, will also extend Mr. Neumann credit to help him repay a $500 million loan facility led by JPMorgan, the people said. It will also pay him a $185 million consulting fee.
Mr. Neumann has promised to work exclusively with the company for four years, some of the people said. Mr. Neumann, who has remained chairman of WeWork parent We Co., will step down from the board but remain an observer and hold a minority stake.
The money Mr. Neumann will receive on his way out, which he has told people he sees as a validation of the job he did building the company, is likely to raise hackles among employees, governance experts and others. Mr. Neumann had previously sold hundreds of millions of dollars of his stock in the company and borrowed heavily against it.
While he will walk away a billionaire, most We employees are left holding stock options that are underwater at the roughly $20-a-share valuation implied by the SoftBank deal, according to former executives familiar with the compensation packages. That leaves them with little beyond their salaries and—for thousands set to be laid off—any severance.
I especially like the detail that he’s getting 200 million bucks to serve as a consultant. After all, without his deep expertise, the company could start losing less money!
In conclusion, higher marginal tax rates would destroy American innovation.