At the last game company I worked for (decades ago now) the pay was at best average, and crunch time lasted for at least several months each year, every year (title had an annual release schedule). AFAICT this was both expected and considered normal by my coworkers.

And that’s why it was the last game company I ever worked for.

This description absolutely checks out, even from ~30 years ago when I graduated.

I worked on games for several years early on but quit after going through an EA spouse experience.

In some ways it’s too bad, because the great thing about games is that there is such a great variety of different kinds of problems to solve. Even so, I quit cold turkey and never looked back. It is what it is.

> they will now just create a company in Singapore or Mongolia or another such place, which will then own the second home

How will that help to avoid a tax on secondary residences? Are they somehow going to claim that these properties are the primary residence of a company? Seems nonsensical.

No. The residence becomes an 'asset', and the original owner (and now owner of your friendly Mongolian NYC-condo-operations company [MNYCCOC]) now pays rent to the very same MNYCCOC as the landlord. They could even consider the condo to be a very exclusive one-suite hotel and pay by day, and deduct hotel costs for living in said condo as 'necessary business expenses'. In the meantime, the MNYCCOC is a good citizen, and pays taxes but only after ... and deducts everything necessary for upkeep, from dripping faucets to elevator repair to housemaids ('janitorial staff'), making them essentially free.

It's accountancy that makes the world go round round round...

Wouldn't that mean that they would then also pay NY income tax?

Well, you need to read the rest too:

"While the tax seems large, experts say the city’s antiquated assessment and valuation system dramatically undervalues properties, reducing the burden. City valuations can often be 10% or less of the true market value, they said."

It also mentions they plan to adjust property valuations in coming years, and when the valuations go up the rates will go down:

"After the valuation adjustments ... properties over $25 million will be taxed at 1.3%"

I dunno, 1.3% of the actual value seems.. not at all unreasonable? I live in TX and that's about what my property taxes are, for a property valued at several orders of magnitude less than any of Ken Griffin's NYC properties.

EDIT: As mil22 pointed out, this 1.3% tax is on top of the existing ~1.8% NYC property tax rate, so it's more like ~3.1% total.

> I dunno, 1.3% seems.. not at all unreasonable? I live in TX and that's about what my property taxes are, for a property valued at several orders of magnitude less than any of Ken Griffin's NYC properties.

Bear in mind, it's 1.3% on top of the existing ~1.8% average NYC property tax rate, so it may still be comparatively expensive relative to TX property taxes.

Good point, I missed that.

This policy appears to target ultra-wealthy investors who are just parking their assets in NYC real estate and don't reside in NY to begin with, and thus aren't paying NY state income tax.

>Taxes has no income tax. NYC plus ny state has income tax at close to 10%.

That's as may be, and for residents of NYC that's impactful.

The new law targets second homes, which are generally defined as a residence which is not your primary residence. Meaning that the folks affected are generally not NYC (and often not NY state) residents, so the NYC/NY State income tax is irrelevant, as the folks affected don't pay those income taxes.

Just to clarify, income over $5,000,000/year is taxed at 10.3%. Under a million is 4-6%.

For several years I walked to and from the office, about 1.5 miles each way. Typically in the morning I would listen to a podcast or audiobook, and on the way home I would often continue thinking about whatever I had been trying to figure out at work. I found it useful.

You're making a big mistake by completely failing to account for the inherent (not to mention quite large) uncertainties in this kind of situation.

A priori, it's not "40 days in jail == $800k payday", it's "some unknown number of days in jail and risk of a conviction in exchange for a chance at a payday of unknown value".

Not to mention, the side effects extend beyond jail time. For example, your name gets plastered everywhere too.

That still makes these kinds of settlements feel more like a lottery than fair compensation.

I agree, and that's part of the point. "Free money glitch" does not sound like a valid description of any lottery I've ever heard of.

There's a reason (several, probably) why you don't actually see cases of police arresting each other and then suing to enrich themselves.

Sounds like a glaringly obvious conflict of interest?

Of course it is, people will do whatever they can get away with.

Be careful, the market makers always win. If you go against them, you make yourself a target.

You mean the same electorate that elected a nominally Republican candidate who campaigned on raising taxes, and then proceeded to do exactly that?

> It costs him little to nothing to say,

That all depends on how much he values his credibility, I think..

But to be fair, for someone as good at self promotion as he is, I can believe that the value of the hype could be greater than the cost in credibility.