Ireland first launched a three-year basic income experiment in 2022. Now it plans to make it permanent.
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Ireland plans to make a basic income for artists permanent in 2026.
In a three-year-long pilot program, officials paid local artists $1,500 monthly.
Recipients in the pilot said the basic income payments improved their daily lives.
As Ireland's $1,500-a-month basic income pilot program for creatives nears its end in February, officials have to answer a simple question: Is it worth it?
With four months to go, they say the answer is yes.
Earlier this month, Ireland's government announced its 2026 budget, which includes "a successor to the pilot Basic Income Scheme for the Arts to begin next year" among its expenditures.
Ireland is just one of many places experimenting with guaranteed basic income programs, which provide recurring, unrestricted payments to people in a certain demographic. These programs differ from a universal basic income, which would provide payments for an entire population.
Basic income programs of all kinds have been around for a long time, but have seen renewed interest since the COVID-19 pandemic and the onset of the AI revolution. Some of the world's top AI leaders have called for such programs to alleviate the loss of income in the future if the technology ousts humans from their jobs.
Ireland first launched its basic income pilot program in 2022, when some 2,000 artists began receiving a weekly stipend of €325, or about $370. Although officials initially scheduled the pilot program to end this August, Patrick O'Donovan, the minister for culture, communications, and sport in Ireland, extended it to February 2026.
Citizens who participated in the pilot program said the payments improved their daily lives. A report published by Ireland's government in May said the payments reduced financial stress, allowed for professional growth, and boosted mental health.
A government press release this month said the 2026 budget would include a provision to make the country's Basic Income for the Arts pilot permanent in 2026.
"The Basic Income for the Arts pilot scheme, which I extended this year, will end in 2026, and I will bring a successor scheme to Government with the intention of embedding a permanent basic income in the Arts and Culture sector," O'Donovan said. "This scheme is the envy of the world, and a tremendous achievement for Ireland, and must be made futureproof and sustainable."
Maura McGrath, chair of the Arts Council in Ireland, praised the decision in a statement.
"The Arts Council particularly welcomes the continued investment in the Basic Income for the Arts, which provides artists with the stability to develop their practice, innovate, and contribute meaningfully to Ireland's cultural landscape," McGrath said. "We are ambitious for the arts sector and will continue to work with Minister O'Donovan and our Department colleagues advising on the optimisation of opportunities for artists, arts workers and audiences."
Many of the big companies that have left California had their roots in San Francisco and the Bay Area.
Justin Sullivan/Getty Images
Big companies continue to leave California.
Overall, research shows the number of companies leaving is small.
But the departures include some of the nation's largest companies.
Big companies continue to leave California.
Some executives, including Tesla's Elon Musk and Palantir's Alex Karp, have made it abundantly clear why they left.
"This is the final straw," Musk wrote on X in 2024 after Gov. Gavin Newsom signed a bill into law that barred school staff from informing parents of a student's gender identity.
The number of companies leaving California is small. According to a 2025 report from the Public Policy Institute of California, only 3% of firms in California moved to a different state. However, larger companies are more likely to leave than smaller ones.
Outside of businesses, people, too, have been leaving California at a high rate. US Census data from October 2024 showed nearly 700,000 people left California between 2022 and 2023. Lifestyle and affordability were the main factors for moving elsewhere.
Company relocations are trending upward. Business Insider compiled some of the biggest names so far.
McKesson Corp.
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Pharmaceutical giant McKesson left California in 2019. In terms of public companies, only Apple loomed larger in the Bay Area.
Then-CEO John H. Hammergren said that McKesson was moving its headquarters to Las Colinas, Texas (near Dallas) to "improve efficiency, collaboration and cost-competitiveness, while providing an exceptional work environment for our employees."
McKesson remains the highest-ranking Fortune 500 company to leave California in recent years.
Chevron
Chevron's Houston headquarters
Houston Chronicle/Hearst Newspapers/Houston Chronicle via Getty
Oil giant Chevron had deep roots in California, going back to the 1870s when an early predecessor discovered oil north of Los Angeles. That didn't stop the company from moving to Houston in 2024.
Looking back on its move, the energy giant says that California's leaders have taken steps that made it "unappealing."
"While our relocation has very real benefits to our business, we also believe California policymakers have pursued policies that raise costs and consumer prices, creating a hardship for all Californians, especially those who can least afford it," Ross Allen, a spokesperson for Chevron, said in a statement to Business Insider. "These policies have also made California investment unappealing compared with opportunities elsewhere in the US and globally."
Tesla
Tesla's Austin headquarters
Brandon Bell/Getty
Like some of his fellow tech CEOs, Elon Musk grew frustrated with the limitations of the Bay area before Tesla left for Austin in 2021.
"There's a limit to how big you can scale in the Bay Area," Musk said at the time.
Before the move, Musk had also clashed with officials over keeping Tesla's Fremont, California, factory open despite COVID-19 orders.
Oracle
Oracle office in Santa Monica, California
Richard Vogel/AP
In 2020, Oracle left its longtime home in California. The computer technology giant isn't done moving yet.
Last year, CEO Larry Ellison said the computer technology giant would move its headquarters from Austin, where it had been for less than half a decade, to Tennessee.
"Nashville is a fabulous place to live," Ellison said, according to an Associated Press report. "It's a great place to raise a family. It's got a unique and vibrant culture .... It's the center of the industry we're most concerned about, which is the health care industry."
CBRE
CBRE's logo
Illustration by Thomas Fuller/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty
Global real estate company CBRE monitors the number of companies leaving California. The firm itself left Los Angeles in 2020.
"Designating Dallas as CBRE's global corporate headquarters formalizes how our company has been operating for the past eight years," Lew Horne, head of operations in the Southwest, said in a statement to the Los Angeles Times in 2020.
Charles Schwab
Charles Schwab's former San Francisco headquarters
Justin Sullivan/Getty
Charles Schwab left for Westlake, Texas, in 2019 after it agreed to buy Omaha-based TD Ameritrade.
Schwab chairman and founder Charles Schwab singled out the business climate in California as motivation for the move: "The costs of doing business here are so much higher than some other place" he told Forbes.
The companies said in a joint statement that their new home would "allow the combined firm to take advantage of the central location of the new Schwab campus."
In 2023, SFGate reported that Schwab further reduced its presence in San Francisco, its former home.
"We've had an extremely positive experience in Texas," a spokesperson from Schwab said in a statement to BI. "From day one, the energy, innovation, and welcoming spirit of North Texas has far exceeded our expectations."
Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE)
HPE CEO Antonio Neri
Business Wire/AP
In 2020, Hewlett Packard Enterprise announced it was leaving California, another COVID-19 era departure.
"Houston is also an attractive market for us to recruit and retain talent, and a great place to do business," CEO Antonio Neri said in a statement announcing the move.
Neri praised HPE's new home in Spring, Texas (a Houston suburb), but stressed that the company was not leaving Silicon Valley entirely.
"Our San Jose campus will remain a hub for technological talent and innovation," he said.
Palantir
Alex Karp
Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images
Software giant Palantir left Silicon Valley in 2020. Before the tech company moved, CEO Alex Karp said he had concerns about California.
"I'm pretty happy outside the monoculture in New Hampshire," Karp told Axios in May 2020 when asked if he would move back to California as the COVID-19 pandemic was receding.
Karp said at the time that Palantir was narrowing down its list of future homes, which potentially included Colorado.
Palantir has been in Denver since August 2020.
SpaceX
Elon Musk's SpaceX Starbase is in Boca Chica, Texas.
CHANDAN KHANNA/Getty Images
Elon Musk promised to move SpaceX to Texas in 2024, part of a series of announcements that positioned his companies away from California.
In announcing SpaceX's relocation, Musk singled out a California law that forbids schools from requiring staff to inform parents of a student's gender identity.
"This is the final straw," Musk wrote on X in July 2024. "Because of this law and the many others that preceded it, attacking both families and companies, SpaceX will now move its HQ from Hawthorne, California, to Starbase, Texas."
Neutrogena
Neutrogena
Rebecca Sapp/WireImage for Mediaplacement
Kenvue, Johnson & Johnson's spun-off healthcare division, uprooted Neutrogena from California in 2024 as part of a corporate consolidation.
Roughly 100 employees were affected by Kenvue's decision to shut down Neutrogena's Los Angeles headquarters, SFGate reported. The well-known cosmetics company had been in California since it was founded in 1930 as a supplier to the stars.
Kenvue said it was relocating Neutrogena's operations to its then-planned global headquarters in Summit, New Jersey. In March 2025, the company held its grand opening of its new HQ.
Playboy
Playboy CEO Ben Kohn
Charley Gallay/Getty Images for Playboy
Hugh Hefner's bachelor pad is no more. And neither will be Playboy's home in California.
In August, the iconic men's lifestyle brand announced that it was moving to Miami. While Hefner's famous Playboy Mansion was in Los Angeles, the company was headquartered in Chicago from the magazine's inception in 1953 to 2012. Hefner, who died in 2017, wanted to be closer to Playboy's operations.
"Miami Beach is among the most dynamic and culturally influential cities in the country, making it the ideal home for Playboy's next chapter," CEO Ben Kohn said in a statement.
In an interview with Fox News, Kohn said it was too difficult to keep doing business in California.
"Given Florida and Miami's pro-business stance, leaving California, which is anti-business and a very difficult place to do business as an employer, we're excited to be relocating to Miami Beach," Kohn told the outlet. "And the city of Miami Beach has been phenomenal and helpful in the move."
Realtor.com
A "sold" sign is seen in front of a house
Matt Rourke/AP
Relator.com said it was moving its Bay Area headquarters to Austin.
"Austin and Texas offer a strong and growing talent pool, a powerhouse economy with unparalleled housing growth, affordability of living only matched by its aspirational lifestyle, expansive tech and academic communities, and a dynamic and vibrant city at the heart of the thriving state of Texas. There is no better place for us to call home," CEO Damian Eales said in a statement.
News Corp. CEO Robert Thompson said the media giant was "proud" of the online real estate company's home. The conglomerate, which also owns Fox News and The Wall Street Journal, operates Relator.com through a subsidiary, Move, Inc.
"We are proud to be housed in a state which understands the crucial role played by business in providing opportunities for personal growth, professional success, and community achievement," Thompson said in a statement.
AECOM
AECOM CEO Troy Rudd
Hannah McKay/Pool Photo via AP
Global consultancy firm AECOM left Los Angeles in 2021, saying that Texas offered more benefits.
"Dallas has emerged as a US hub for corporate headquarters and a compelling corporate talent magnet, particularly among our peers and public companies in the engineering and consulting sectors," a company spokesperson told The LA Times.
FICO
FICO logo on a smartphone screen.
illustration by Cheng Xin/Getty Images
Financial data analytics firm FICO, officially known as the Fair Isaac Corporation, quietly moved to Bozeman, Montana, sometime in 2021.
The company, best known for its FICO score, previously moved its corporate headquarters from Minneapolis to San Jose in 2013.
Tia cofounder, chairwoman, and former CEO Carolyn Witte.
Taylor Hill/Getty Images
Women's health startup Tia just slashed about 23% of its workforce, Business Insider has learned.
CEO Felicity Yost told employees that Tia got feedback in a recent fundraise that led to the cuts.
In-person healthcare clinics, like those Tia operates, have proven difficult to sustain financially.
Women's health startup Tia has slashed about 23% of its staff, Business Insider has learned.
The company, which provides in-person and virtual care tailored to women, cut 27% of its corporate team, or 17 people; 22% of its providers, or 27 people; and 23% of its field support team, or 28 people, according to an email to employees sent Monday evening by Tia CEO Felicity Yost.
Tia's layoffs show how even buzzy, well-funded startups are being forced to reckon with healthcare's economic pressures against venture capital's growth expectations. Once a rising star backed by Melinda French Gates, Tia is now under pressure to prove that its hybrid model of tech-enabled women's clinics can actually turn a profit.
Tia confirmed the layoffs in a statement to Business Insider.
Tia operates as a one-stop healthcare shop for women, providing services from gynecology and primary care to mental healthcare, with options for in-person and virtual care. The startup runs 11 clinics, according to its website, including six locations in Los Angeles, two in New York City, one in San Francisco, and two in Arizona.
Yost told employees in her email that the layoffs were a response to feedback Tia received in a recent fundraise. Yost said Tia sought that funding after its business's underperformance meant Tia would not be able to reach profitability without more cash.
The feedback from the fundraise "required us to rethink our business in the current economic and policy climate, which is one that prizes cost and profit-consciousness," Yost said in her email. "We must manage towards a faster timeline to be corporate-level profitable than we previously contemplated."
"Tia has seen strong growth, particularly in membership, which has outpaced our expectations for 2025. At the same time, we're facing ongoing structural challenges impacting the broader care delivery sector, such as cost pressures from rising labor rates and tighter reimbursement rates, which require us to be more disciplined in our operations," a Tia spokesperson said in a statement to Business Insider.
In-person clinics have proven difficult to sustain financially, even for well-funded healthcare companies. Forward shut down abruptly in November 2024 after raising over $650 million to scale its tech-driven clinics and automated "CarePods."
Primary care chain VillageMD has begun selling its clinics after spinning off from Walgreens in the retailer's sale to Sycamore Partners in August; Walgreens had announced plans to close 160 VillageMD clinics in April 2024 to curb losses. Walmart shuttered all 51 of its health centers later in April, citing a lack of profitability.
While Tia hasn't announced a round of funding since its $100 million Series B in 2021, Yost's email to employees references Tia's "Series C growth plan." Tia didn't respond to a question from Business Insider about its Series C. The startup also raised an undisclosed amount of Series B extension funding from Melinda French Gates' Pivotal Ventures in 2023, which Tia said brought its total funding to $150 million.
"Across healthcare, we're seeing organizations respond to market trends that favor operational efficiency, sustainable growth, and sharper financial discipline. Tia is doing the same, and from a position of strength," the Tia spokesperson said. The spokesperson added that Tia has more health system partnerships and expansion announcements planned for early next year.
More from Tia's email
Yost said in her email to employees that the fires in Los Angeles in early January had challenged Tia's business in the first quarter. She also cited "slower than necessary growth that hampered our business."
Tia introduced new projects in the second quarter, "meant to counteract the dip in Q1 performance," Yost wrote. Those initiatives included a new model to allow patients to get care from Tia without becoming a member, a partnership for Tia members to access compounded GLP-1 prescriptions, and a national rollout of Tia's virtual care services.
While the new no-membership-required model outperformed expectations, Yost said, underperformance across the rest of the business led Tia to seek additional funding because "we would not achieve profitability with our existing cash runway, as planned."
Yost said Tia did ultimately secure additional funding, but received feedback in the process that led to the layoffs.
Yost and Witte started Tia in 2016, focusing on in-person clinics. The startup began rolling out virtual care services in 2020, during the COVID-19 pandemic, and later shifted to a hybrid model.
Tia's last reported layoff occurred in July 2022, as Business Insider reported the following November. Tia cofounder and then-CEO Carolyn Witte told BI that the layoffs were a preemptive response to the market downturn so Tia could continue to grow responsibly.
Witte stepped down as Tia's CEO in April 2024 and into the role of Tia's chairwoman. Witte said a LinkedIn post about her departure from the role that Yost, formerly Tia's president, would serve as Tia's interim CEO.
In addition to the layoffs, Yost said in her Monday email that Tia would make significant changes to its operating expenses, including to its tools and contracts, and cut compensation for its senior leaders. Yost also said that Tia could no longer afford to hire clinical roles ahead of demand and "must creatively rethink how we optimize our administrative and care support roles across a broader range of responsibilities."
She said the startup aims to make these changes without compromising its high-quality patient care standards.
Employees affected by the Tuesday layoffs, including patient-facing providers, were cut off from Tia's systems immediately following the email.
Julie Kelley recently went on vacation with her mom Judy and her 11-year-old son.
Courtesy of Julie Kelley
Julie Kelley and her 10-year-old live with Kelley's mother, Judy, an 81-year-old former educator.
The fourth grader shares a deep bond with his grandma forged by familiarity and mutual interests.
His mom said that the special connection has fostered his kindness and empathy toward others.
This story is based on a conversation with Julie Kelley, 51, a media consultant who lives in northeast Vermont.
My 10-year-old son is the most empathetic individual I know.
If one of his peers is struggling with classes or sports like soccer, he'll make a point of helping them out. I describe him as a gentleman.
His greatest strengths are patience and compassion. I know exactly why he has those traits: his 81-year-old grandmother has lived with us for seven years.
My son doesn't see her as being old. He regards the woman he calls Gram as an inspiration and a mentor.
My siblings and I wanted to do the best for our parents
My three older brothers and I often say that we won the parents' lottery. They were incredibly good to us and were central to our lives all the way into adulthood.
When you have great parents like them, you want to do the best for them when they get older.
Mom and Dad followed my then-husband and me when we relocated to Atlanta for work reasons in 2017. They had a home in Vermont, but didn't think twice about heading South the following year.
The Kelleys with their son and grandson as a baby.
Courtesy of Julie Kelley
They lived in a 1,300-square-foot apartment that was an annex to our house with a separate entrance. Just as they did when they visited us in the many states where we lived — I moved around a lot because I worked in TV news — they wanted to spend every spare moment with our 3-year-old.
Their five other grandchildren were either approaching adulthood or already in their 20s. And, as much as they loved them, they doted on their youngest grandson and wanted to see him grow close by.
Mom was — and is — an integral part of our household
My boy was best buddies with his granddad, who played with him all the time. Mom used to say that he'd run right by her to jump into his arms. Tragically, Dad died in August 2018, soon after they arrived in Atlanta.
I believe that, after he passed, the ability to get through the grief was helped by the deep, multi-generational connection that my son built with his grandma when she was widowed so suddenly.
Mom stayed in the annex for the following two years and was an integral part of our household. If my son drew a picture of his family at school, she'd be front and center.
Judy Kelley celebrates Halloween with her young grandson.
Courtesy of Julie Kelley
We all moved back to Vermont in 2020, partly because of COVID-19. I became a single mom last year, and Mom was there for me, quite literally, as she continued to live with me and my son.
She frequently travels to spend time with my brothers, who live in Pennsylvania, Indianapolis, and Missouri. They each have a bedroom especially for her. But whenever she is away, my fourth grader longs for her return.
The 3 of us went on an exciting road trip this summer
She's a former history teacher, and he's a history buff. They'll talk about everything from dinosaurs to medieval times or stories she reads in The New York Times. Mom has always been an intellectual, and it rubs off on her grandson.
This June, the three of us went on a 10-day road trip to Montana and Wyoming, taking in Yellowstone National Park. Mom is very knowledgeable about prehistoric times and explained everything to us when we visited a dinosaur museum.
My brothers thought I was a little crazy to take her along, but it was the best multi-generational vacation you could have. Mom, who loves traveling, couldn't participate in some of the more active elements of the trip. Still, it was a blast.
The Kelleys at a dinosaur exhibition
Courtesy of Julie Kelley
Some children feel uneasy around older people. But my son is the opposite. He knows his grandma is slowing down and does everything to help her. He'll support her when she goes to the car and gets her walker in and out of the trunk.
It's a delight to watch them together. I sometimes take surreptitious videos on my phone of them playing or debating something. It's important to keep a record of their bond. Both of them know she won't be around forever, and they want to make memories while they can.
My son exudes comfort and care
I appreciate the way she has fostered compassion and understanding in my son, mostly because he spends a significant portion of his day with her. Mom has fallen once or twice in her bedroom, and he instinctively rushed upstairs to help.
He brought ice packs from the freezer without me asking and put his stuffed animals on his bed to comfort her.
He is acutely aware of other people's feelings, and his love and care for his grandma have shaped his personality.
Do you have a story about a multi-generational household? Please send details to Jane Ridley at jridley@insider.com
Legendary restaurateur Drew Nieporent spoke with Business Insider about rising menu prices.
RCF/MEGA/GC Images
Drew Nieporent opened 40 restaurants in 40 years, including Nobu.
The restaurateur told Business Insider that he believes restaurant prices have "gotten out of hand."
Nieporent has a rule: He won't pay for any meal that costs more than his $750 New York Jets ticket.
When Drew Nieporent opened his New York City restaurant Montrachet, the prix fixe menu cost $16.
To be fair, this was 1985 — adjust for inflation and the bill would be closer to $50 — but there's no denying that restaurants have become significantly more expensive over the past few years.
This is especially true in the world of fine dining, where some tasting menus now cost $1,000 for a dinner for two. What could once be the entire bill of a three-course meal might now get you the $45 foie gras supplement.
Nieporent, who opened 40 restaurants in 40 years, including Nobu and Tribeca Grill, now has a rule when it comes to eating out — no meal can cost more than his $750 New York Jets ticket.
"That's what I judge everything by," Nieporent said. "I'll spend $500 on a meal at Noma. It's less than what I pay for my Jets tickets."
"Masa in New York is $950 per person," he added, referring to the restaurant's sushi counter tasting. "Masa is amazing. I've been there, but I will not spend that kind of money. I just can't justify it."
Eleven Madison Park was among the restaurants that raised their tasting menu prices by $100 or more per person.
Spencer Platt/Getty Images
Fine-dining restaurants across the US have continued to struggle in the aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic, which led to higher supply costs, labor shortages, and fewer reservations.
Still, the rise in menu prices at some high-end establishments has been quick and steep. Eater reported in 2023 that a handful of NYC fine-dining restaurants — including Masa and Eleven Madison Park — raised their menu prices by $100 or more per person in the span of 12 to 18 months.
Nieporent told Business Insider that he's shocked by how much restaurants are charging nowadays, especially compared to when he first got into the business.
"The dirtiest little secret was that the wealthy people in the '60s, '70s, and the '80s were eating at these great French restaurants for nothing," he said. "They were drinking wine for nothing. Now, everything costs a fortune."
Drew Nieporent with the opening staff of his restaurant Montrachet in 1985.
Courtesy of Drew Nieporent
Montrachet, which closed in 2006, was among those French restaurants. The Tribeca spot held onto three stars from The New York Times for 19 years.
"My success as a restaurateur is making the diner experience more accessible," said Nieporent, a partner of Nobu New York City, Nobu Fifty Seven, and Nobu London.
Nieporent knows there will always be people willing to pay big bucks for a tasting menu. He'll just be saving his priciest nights for MetLife.
Doug Lebda, LendingTree founder and CEO, has died.
Steve Jennings/Getty Images
Doug Lebda, LendingTree founder and CEO, died in an ATV accident at age 55, the company said.
LendingTree's COO, Scott Peyree, has been named CEO.
Lebda founded LendingTree in 1996, transforming the financial services landscape.
Doug Lebda, the LendingTree founder, chairman, and CEO, died on Sunday in an ATV accident, the company announced. He was 55.
LendingTree named the company's COO, Scott Peyree, as CEO following Lebda's death.
"We are deeply saddened by the sudden passing of Doug," LendingTree's board of directors said in a statement. "Doug was a visionary leader whose relentless drive, innovation, and passion transformed the financial services landscape, touching the lives of millions of consumers."
Lebda founded LendingTree, then called CreditSource USA, in 1996. He said he founded the company after dealing with the opaque process of getting a mortgage for a condominium, where comparison shopping is challenging.
"I was frustrated by the process as most people are," Lebda told The Daily Item newspaper in 2017. "My insight that there might be a more efficient way of consumers and lenders to find each other was in 1996, as a result of me doing consulting, auditing work for companies in the energy business."
"Let the consumer take the deal that works best for them. We were always envisioned as a search engine or a comparison shopping site," he added.
The company, which is headquartered in Charlotte, North Carolina, operates a loan platform where customers searching for a mortgage, personal loan, or other financial product can get preemptive quotes from a range of banks or other financial institutions. Instead of lending directly, it's a place for customers to comparison shop.
It's similar to travel websites like Expedia, which allow shoppers to compare rates from different airlines that could take them to their destination. By entering some financial information and consenting to a soft credit check, a LendingTree customer can compare rates offered by many different auto loan providers, for example. LendingTree itself doesn't make loans; it facilitates them between its clients and a stable of 300 lenders, operating as a marketplace.
Prior to founding the company, Lebda was an auditor and consultant at PwC.
He received an MBA from the University of Virginia Darden School of Business. Lebda left business school to found LendingTree, but later returned.
Lebda was also a contributor on several media networks, including Bloomberg, CNBC, and Fox Business.
"The news of losing Doug was devastating," Pyree said. "But one of the most immediate impacts of his legacy is the strong management team he put in place at LendingTree. I look forward to leading our team and continuing our shared vision with Doug into the future."
Lebda is survived by his wife, Megan, and three daughters.
"It is impossible to capture the depth of who Doug was and what he meant to all of us. He was an amazing man with a heart so big it seemed to have room for everyone he met," Doug Lebda's wife, Megan, told WCNC, a local TV station in Charlotte, in a statement. "Doug was compassionate, generous, and endlessly curious about the world and the people around him. He made friends everywhere he went. His energy was magnetic, his smile contagious, and his presence was a source of comfort and inspiration."
"Our hearts are broken, but we are also deeply grateful for the love and support that has poured in from across the world," she added.
Pat McCrory, businessman and former Governor of North Carolina, wrote in a post on X that he has "lost a true friend" and that the state "has lost one of America's greatest entrepreneurs."
"Doug Lebda could have put the head quarters of Lending Tree anywhere in the nation, but he selected Charlotte to be his home. We are so fortunate to have known his passion and heart," said McCrory.
"Compassion and capitalism, not greed, are what can make this country far greater," Mark Cuban wrote on X on Sunday.
Julia Beverly/WireImage via Getty Images
Mark Cuban says that companies should offer employees the same kind of stock incentives they give CEOs.
Cuban has long been a fan of companies sharing the spoils with employees.
The wage gap between CEOs and workers has widened significantly in the past few decades.
Mark Cuban said on Sunday that employees, not just CEOs, should receive a proportional cut of their companies' success in the form of stock options.
Cuban was responding to several posts on X that criticized the growing wealth of top business executives compared to the average worker. He said the real issue wasn't the ever-increasing net worth of billionaires but how companies reward employees.
In his X post, Cuban wrote that billionaire wealth levels are soaring "because the stock market has gone straight up."
"You know who is funding the increase, particularly lately? Retail investors. 401ks," Cuban said.
"The better question is why are we not giving incentives to companies to require them to give shares in their companies to all employees, at the same percentage of cash earnings as the CEO?" he added.
Cuban did not respond to a request for comment from Business Insider.
Cuban said in an earlier post that successful entrepreneurs derive less satisfaction from money "once your LIQUID net worth becomes high enough."
"The value of those dollars becomes much greater, to you, and so many others, when you use your business or other expertise to help others. That is the greater reward," Cuban wrote.
"Compassion and capitalism, not greed, are what can make this country far greater," he added.
Cuban has long espoused the importance of companies divvying up the spoils with their rank-and-file employees.
"You will get more from your employees, and they will be more committed if you share equity immediately in a meaningful way, so that everybody rises up," Cuban said.
"No entrepreneur can do this alone. You need every single employee committed to helping you get through this, so recognize that. Reward them for it," he added.
Last year, Cuban said in an X post that "300 out of 330 employees" at his streaming company, Broadcast.com, became millionaires after he sold it to Yahoo for $5.7 billion.
He also shared profits with his employees at his first business, Microsolutions, a software company. After selling the company for $6 million to CompuServe, Cuban said he shared 20% of the sales proceeds with 80 employees.
"In every business I've sold, I've paid out bonuses to every employee that was there more than a year," Cuban wrote on X in June 2024.
Last month, the American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations said in a report that S&P 500 CEOs earned 268 times as much as their median worker in 2023. The average CEO made around 30 times what the average worker made in 1978.
In September, Tesla proposed a new $1 trillion pay package for its CEO, Elon Musk, if he could raise the EV giant's market cap to $8.5 trillion by 2035. Tesla's current market cap is around $1.3 trillion.
"If he performs, if he hits the super ambitious milestones that are in the plan, then he gets equity — it's 1% for each half a trillion dollars of market cap, plus operational milestones he has to hit in order to do that," Tesla chair Robyn Denholm said in a CNBC interview about the proposal.
Royal Navy Sailors having lunch at the Junior Rates dining area.
Amrita Chandradas for BI
The HMS Prince of Wales is the UK's latest aircraft carrier, with roughly 1,600 people on board.
To feed that many people at sea, it deploys 71 catering staff who work 12-hour shifts.
Sailors on board say the food is excellent, so I got a closer look at the kitchens.
The last time I boarded the HMS Prince of Wales, the sailors kept talking about the food.
"It's pretty good," said a Merlin HM2 operator on the captain's bridge, as I sheltered with a group of British experts from the unrelenting Singapore sun in June.
His two squadron mates, tasked with guiding us through the aircraft carrier, eagerly took us through a full list of what they eat every day.
Sailors and air wing crew regularly get steak and whole fish, and these three said they never had a complaint. During other segments of my visit, other crew members mentioned favorite meals: curries, lamb, and fish and chips.
It's rare to hear troops so readily praise the food on deployment. So when the Prince of Wales, the UK's newest aircraft carrier, returned to Singapore in late September, the Royal Navy allowed me into the 16-deck marine giant's catering facilities for a closer look.
The HMS Prince of Wales is the UK's second aircraft carrier and was commissioned in 2019.
Exterior of Prince of Wales.
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It was a quiet Wednesday for the kitchens as some chefs took time off in the city. The carrier strike group, halfway through an eight-month deployment in the Indo-Pacific, was departing soon. Most of the carrier's 1,600 personnel were expected to eat on board as pilots and sailors filtered in from port leave.
The deployment is a high-profile operation for the UK, which is hoping to show the region a strong front after its Queen Elizabeth-class carriers suffered repeated technical failures in recent years.
For operational security reasons, I was only cleared to view and photograph the dining and cooking areas. The RN also requested that interviewees not be identified by their last names.
Specialized menus are standard procedure for the Royal Navy, or RN, as sailors call it.
Royal Navy Sailor gathering their lunch at the junior rates dining area. Lunch is self service as other food services.
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The Prince of Wales' weekly menu includes a Wednesday theme night, such as Scottish or Mexican, fish on Fridays, steak on Saturdays, and a Sunday roast dinner.
These special meals aren't specific to the Prince of Wales and are intended to be standard across the RN.
But meals on UK carriers are known to be far better.
Portrait of Petty Officer
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Petty Officer Craig "Jacko," one of eight senior-ranking staff overseeing the galleys, said the carrier's kitchens have an especially strong reputation among the crew.
He cited the military adage "food is morale" as he took me through the fore galley.
The Prince of Wales has two main galleys, though only the fore galley was running in Singapore.
Royal Navy chefs were preparing both lunch and dinner when Business Insider visited the galley in the late morning.
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Inside, RN chefs were wrapping up lunch and starting on dinner prep. With only about two-thirds of a typical shift cooking at port, the air-conditioned galley seemed sleepier than usual.
Still, the cooks work fast and at scale. The steaming scent of salmon and roast potatoes gushed from 12 combination ovens while young chefs chopped red onions and chicken by the crateload. To haul ingredients from freezers and storerooms on other decks, chefs use twin elevators that feed into the kitchen.
"What's different here is the numbers," said Jacko, standing next to frothing vats of penne and meat sauce. "Cooking for 1,600 people, it's a lot busier. We're talking about 200 kilos of meat a day."
The galleys serve four, sometimes five meals a day for 1,600 people.
Royal Navy Sailor gathering their lunch at the junior rates dining area.
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Menus are the same for officers and crew, who all get breakfast, lunch, dinner, and a midnight meal. When in a heightened alert posture, the Prince of Wales offers two breakfasts — à la Lord of the Rings — with one beginning at 4:30 a.m.
On a typical day, the crew has four to five options per meal, totaling roughly 20 to 25 types of mains a day.
Lunch on the Thursday before I visited, for example, was currywurst and onions, Philly cheesesteaks, peri-peri chicken, cheese and veggie baguettes, and jacket potatoes, salads, cold meats, fruit, and a soup of the day.
The theme that night was Italian, with oven-baked lasagna, chicken parms, Roman-style roast lamb, spinach and ricotta spaghetti, Parmesan roast potatoes, and focaccia. For dessert, the crew was served tiramisu with cream on the side.
Senior galley staff can change up the menu depending on what the sailors ask for.
A cook stirs a giant pot in the fore galley.
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Jacko said galley staff, thousands of miles from home, eventually plan some menus by asking around for cravings.
After five months at sea, a warrant officer said he was pining for ham, eggs, and chips — a UK staple. So, Jacko said, the Prince of Wales served it up for lunch on a Thursday.
"That was big, probably the busiest meal I've seen for a long time," he said.
The Prince of Wales has to cook up to 8,000 meals a day.
Chefs preparing for lunch service at the ship's kitchen.
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Jacko said the Prince of Wales' food is the top in the RN because there are so many chefs on board.
The carrier has 71 catering staff to feed 1,600 people, with 15 managers and 56 junior rates responsible for cooking roughly 8,000 meals a day.
"Their secondary roles are fewer, so they can do more in the galley," he said.
The galleys run 24/7, with chefs working regular duties and long shifts.
Militaries are deathly afraid of food poisoning, which can quickly wipe out a formation's readiness. Chefs on the HMS Prince of Wales have to regularly use thermometer probes to measure the temperatures of dishes served on the counter.
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Though the carrier was only running one kitchen while docked in Singapore, it usually operates two main galleys, a 24/7 snack bar for flight crews and pilots, and a private galley for top commanders.
Before dawn, a bakery attached to the fore galley pumps out pizza dough, pie crusts, baguettes, and up to 300 loaves of fresh bread, some of which are flown by helicopter to other warships escorting the Prince of Wales.
Most galleys cook and prep nonstop, and chefs work 12-hour shifts while performing an additional duty every four days.
"It's just a constant bombardment of work," Jacko said.
Sometimes, junior chefs are asked to manage the menu and operations.
AB1 Hibby helped to plan and oversee lunch operations on Wednesday.
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AB1 Ockeem "Hibby" is gunning for a promotion. He was put in charge of Wednesday's lunch menu, which included salmon fillets, sausages with onions, palm-sized steak bakes, and crushed potatoes that you could shower with cheese, tuna, and baked beans.
"You have to watch out for dietary requirements, that's the main thing," said Hibby, who joined the Prince of Wales' crew in December. "We have people who eat gluten-free, we have vegetarians, we have vegans."
The practice also means the crew gets more varied meals on board.
AB1 Ockeem "Hibby" preps a tray of mashed potatoes just before lunch.
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Jacko said the sheer number of chefs on the carrier makes it easier to diversify meals on long deployments, since every cook can add their own twist to the menu.
Hibby, of Jamaican descent, oversaw a Jamaican Independence Day dinner for the entire ship in August.
It also pushes galley staff to learn to plan for 10 times 10x the meal quantity they might be familiar with.
AB1 Hibby watches over the combi ovens.
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As part of his promotion assessment, Hibby meets with senior staff to discuss kitchen assignments and the menu.
This challenge tests whether cooks are ready to think and plan in large numbers, Jacko said.
"A lot of people come straight from training, and they've gone from cooking for about 100 people to cooking for 1,000 people," he said. "They know exactly what to do and how to do it, but they need more coaching and mentoring on the numbers and quantity."
The carrier acquires new dishes, such as kangaroo, from the places it visits.
Chefs preparing for lunch service at the ship's kitchen ( The Galley).
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Chefs also learn deployment-friendly recipes from navies they visit, like gyros and kebabs from Greece. As the carrier approached Singapore last week, its galleys served Hoi Sin duck breast, glazed tofu, spring rolls, and keropok, or prawn crackers.
To procure ingredients like these, the Prince of Wales resupplies when it docks, facilitated by agents stationed in port countries who work from domestic suppliers. That often means the ship buys whatever it can from the local region.
"Coming out to this side of the world, we've been able to facilitate foods like snapper, shark, kangaroo," said Lt. Dan, the ship's deputy logistics officer.
Supply planning kicks off almost a year before deployment.
Lt. Dan handles food procurement for the Prince of Wales.
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Dan, who goes by his first name on the ship, said the carrier left the UK with frozen foods to spare but usually tops up with meats, milk, and fresh vegetables. While in Singapore, the ship received 11 trucks laden with roughly 30 days' worth of food, including 1,650 pounds of rice, he said.
To keep menus varied, the ship juggles a long list of groceries such as haggis, pork belly, chorizo, ribeye steaks, calamari, ham, and cooking wines. Not everything is available at each port, so balancing the carrier's stores requires supply and catering officers to predict far in advance which areas will run low in each world region.
Planning for the whole deployment started 14 months ago, Dan added.
"Until we get back to the Mediterranean, we probably won't get more sausages," he said.
Lunch is served by 11:30 a.m.
A lieutenant commander eats sausages, beans, and potatoes.
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Sailors and air wing crew filed into the junior rates' hall, where everyone eats when the carrier runs a reduced service in port.
Crew generally choose only one meat option, but I ladled myself a salmon fillet and some of that precious sausage, along with potatoes and shredded cheese.
Even though the crew had praised the food earlier, I was still pleasantly surprised.
Chefs preparing for lunch service at the ship's kitchen ( The Galley).
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The sausage, chewy and somewhat dry, was a tad too salty, but the salmon was evenly cooked, moist, flaky, and doused in a lightly sweet tomato sauce over rice and peas. While the cheese was nothing to write home about, the crushed spuds were warm and soft.
What struck me was that I'd just been fed a whole baked salmon fillet — an actual one, not a slice of dehydrated pale sponge advertised as a fillet, as one expects from a cookhouse. And this was on a day when the menu was watered down, the sailors told me.
You could certainly find better in a restaurant, but by military standards, this was fare I could look forward to every day. Nearby sailors and officers were polishing off their plates.
One officer who's served on multiple warships told me the food quality here is "unbelievable."
Lt. Andrew "Dickie," an education training officer, has served in the RN for 21 years.
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Next to me, Lt. Andrew "Dickie" was tucking into his potatoes.
A training officer who's served for 21 years and deployed to Bahrain and Iraq on Duke-class frigates, he said the carrier's food beats anything else he's had at sea.
"For the quantity they have on board, the quality is unbelievable. You can tell they're all specialists, they're good at it," said Dickie, originally a senior enlisted engineer who commissioned in March 2020, at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Apart from food, the Prince of Wales tries to offer other comforts.
A Royal Navy officer plays "Team Fortress 2" on board the HMS Prince of Wales.
Matthew Loh/Business Insider
Though about 20% smaller than the USS Gerald R. Ford, the British warship has less than half of the American supercarrier's 4,500-odd crew and can house more amenities on board.
Space is still tight, but the Prince of Wales sports ice baths, saunas, inflatable swimming pools, a café, a golf simulator, three gyms, karaoke, and even a PC gaming suite.
Instead of 40-person berthing rooms, the ship puts junior sailors in cabins that fit eight bunks. And when not on alert, the crew gets a daily allowance of two 12-oz beers or equivalent servings of alcohol.
The carrier knows food is precious to sailors.
The wardroom, where officers dine, was empty on Wednesday since everyone ate at one dining hall while in port.
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Dan, the logistics officer, said the Prince of Wales has experimented with ways to conserve food, such as healthy days or meat-free days. Pushback from the crew was fierce, he recalled.
"Ultimately, with the work they do, three times a day, they just want to come in and have some food and home comfort," he said. "There's no sense trying to change that."
The author's parents moved in with her and her family.
Courtesy of the author
My 60-year-old parents lived with my family of seven on and off for over two years.
Their time with us was affected by the pandemic, which delayed their home construction.
There were challenges to living together, but overall, we both see that time together as a gift.
Two months after delivering my fifth baby — a traumatic, whirlwind event that involved aplacental abruption, a preemie, and a NICU stay — my parents moved in with us. The move was intended to be temporary, as they had sold their house and needed a place to stay until they could close on their new home.
And it was temporary, until the second home didn't work out, and they went back to our basement. That second move was also intended to be short-term, but then something unexpected happened: the COVID-19 pandemic.
All in all,my parents lived with uson and off over the course of two years, and while there were some challenges during that time together, we both see it as a huge gift. I've even begged them to move back in (more on that later).
They provided me with help at a crucial time in my life after my 5th child was born
The first timemy parents moved in, they stayed for only three months. They moved in shortly after school had started for my four oldest children, and having them there turned out to be a huge blessing in disguise. Although they both worked full-time, my mom was around in the late afternoons and evenings to help me with the kids and their activities.
Their move coincided with thefall sports season, which worked out perfectly for me. I had no idea how challenging it would be to have a newborn and four other kids in sports and activities, so my mom's helping hand felt like a lifesaver. She also frequently folded endless loads of laundry for me in the morning and even would sometimes take the baby's first morning feeding while I slept in longer, since she tended to wake up early.
In fact, my daughter's first smiles happened on the couch with her grandma. I woke up to pictures she texted me of my baby breaking into a huge smile, and those are precious memories for both of us.
The pandemic affected my parents' plans to build a home
My parents' first move in with us was temporary; they closed on a condo and moved into it shortly before Christmas. I felt stronger and more rested by the end of their time with us, and I had settled into a more comfortable groove as a mom of five kids. My parents had arrived at the exact time I needed more help, and it felt like everything had worked out perfectly for both of us.
So when the condo they bought didn't work out and they wanted to sell again, roughly a year later, my husband and I did not hesitate towelcome them back. The plan was for them to live with us for about a month or two until they built a new home. However, then the pandemic hit. The world essentially shut down, and everything from labor to materials was scarce and expensive, or in some cases, nonexistent altogether. Construction obviously became massively delayed, and the months soon stretched out.
This time around, I was out of the newborn fog, the kids were older, and I was working more, so we did encounter a few challenges. For instance, it was difficult for me to find alone time to work or decompress. I'd been accustomed to waking up early to work and having my coffee in silence before the kids were up, but I soon found that my mom liked to wake up early too — and she was a talker, even at 5 a.m.. I also sometimes struggled with feeling like I was doing more cooking and cleaning while she got to play with the kids. But on the other hand, my parents decided to generously give us $500 a month in "rent," and to help offset their meager food costs.
There were also immeasurable benefits to my parents living there. Our baby essentially grew up with her "Papa," spending nearly every morning snuggling and watching her favorite cartoons with him; my son played endless games of basketball with my dad in the driveway, and we all ate dinner together every night. My mom also happened to do the dishes like a pro, so that was a definite bonus.
I'd welcome my parents back with open arms
Eventually, the following year, with construction in a standstill because of the pandemic, my parents decided to move into an apartment while they figured out their next steps. They felt our time together had come to a natural close, and space would be best for everyone. At the time, I agreed, but now, looking back, I can only say that I would welcome them back in a heartbeat.
My kids got the gift of having their grandparents around, I had a helping hand with dreaded chores like laundry and dishes, and it felt like we were constantly making memories together. Plus, if I'm being honest, I can clearly see how much an extra $500 a month would help us right now, especially when I'm struggling to make ends meet.
Ironically, my parents have decided to sell the house they built yet again and have once again moved down to a basement. This time, however, they chose to live with my younger sister instead of us. I have begged them to move back in with us, arguing that they could travel or buy a vacation home and come and go as they please from our basement. However, so far, they have refused my pleas.
Maybe they have slightly different memories of our time together than I did, but I can safely say to anyone considering living with their parents that in some situations, it can be a wonderful gift for everyone — just be sure to lay out your boundaries about your alone time.