Who bankrolls Star Labs?
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Archived from the IMDb Discussion Forums — Marvel/DC
ramseyferguson — 9 years ago(November 27, 2016 12:35 AM)
My apologies if this question was asked and answered before. It's been bugging me for some time now. I was hoping someone would casually mention it on the show or maybe missed it. I need to know if Barry is running a sweat shop or not
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slycomputerguy-65739 — 9 years ago(November 27, 2016 11:18 AM)
It's never been addressed on the show. People here have speculated that Wells ( the original one) left Barry a trust fund along with star labs. The place would have outrageous bills, just in electricity and water. Not to mention the property taxes. So yeah having only 2 employees doesn't really mean much. Also there's the meta human prison that they are running. Short of the trust fund I don't see how Barry can afford to keep that place running.
Unless he does odd jobs for money like Spiderman before he started fighting crime. Maybe he steals money from bad guys who knows.
Also never addressed is how anyone else gets money. Cisco,Caitlin, Wally, the new Wells etc
The only one currently employed is Joe. I'm not sure but does Iris still have job? -
olwenhill2 — 9 years ago(November 27, 2016 11:28 AM)
Wells/Thawn in season 1 had a very impressive looking house. I assume he left that, plus any other assets, to Barry.
And as Thawn was from the future, he probably had a awful lot of stocks and shares
which he knew would make massive returns in future years. -
ramseyferguson — 9 years ago(November 27, 2016 12:15 PM)
Ok but wouldn't Wells assets ne frozen? I mean he was actually Thawne and Thawne was/is a murderer. Also star labs would be open to all sorts of law suits with the public's knowledge that Wells particle explosion was no accident at all.
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olwenhill2 — 9 years ago(November 27, 2016 01:27 PM)
Thawne planned for the accelerator to 'blow up' and create The Flash. So he knew that his Company would be open to law suits etc.
I'm assuming that as he was a genius, he would know how to protect/hide his assets/money etc.
I couldn't even pretend to know how they do it, but very rich people always seem to have a way of looking after themselves and their money. -
Darrylmurphy — 9 years ago(November 27, 2016 11:39 AM)
Thawne willed Star labs to Barry which would likely include the rights to anything Star Labs holds a patent on, they may also be contracted for designing the meta containment facilities and anti meta weaponry as they are the experts in the field, so they may get money through this.
They don't go into detail in any of this type of thing, in any of the show, like they never explained on Arrow why Oliver was bankrupt despite being 50% owner of his family's company, how unless he outright owned the company Ray could grant ownership to Felicity, or how then minority shareholders could remove her the majority owner from power, or what happened to Oliver's ownership since Ray took control of the company as Oliver never appeared to sell him his stock.
Basically anything business/finance related gets no explanation because they need more time to allow the characters behave like teenagers, though it is hilarious that Barry can afford to run Star Labs but he cant find his own place. -
slycomputerguy-65739 — 9 years ago(November 27, 2016 12:07 PM)
It's idiotic that none of this mentioned. It doesn't take that much time. All they had to do was just say that Wells left Barry a fortune. Barry signs some documents and presto he is Richie Rich. That takes all of 5 minutes. Then they have plenty of time for all other nonsense.
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Darrylmurphy — 9 years ago(November 27, 2016 03:25 PM)
But all we were told is "Wells" left the property to Barry, as part of his living trust, which makes you assume there's more to it, liberally a single added line of dialogue such as "along with instructions to pay a percentage of his estate into funding the operating cost and property tax from here onward".
As it was what they said was vague enough to raise needless questions, such as how do they pay for everything, if they can pay for all that why don't they live more extravagantly, why if Barry can afford Star Labs bill's cant he easily find himself a decent apartment? -
ramseyferguson — 9 years ago(November 27, 2016 04:49 PM)
So even though he legally owns Star Labs. It would look suspicious if he spent his time their "running" the facility.
But working a 9 to 5 when he owns a giant science lab whete he already spends lots is not suspicious at all? -
Darrylmurphy — 9 years ago(November 27, 2016 05:17 PM)
Really that satisfies you? all we are told is Barry owns the property nothing more, just that part of what is "Well's" will basically says is he gives Barry ownership of the lab but nothing else, like I said an extra line would have answered the how they can afford to keep it running, Cisco & Caitlyn don't need jobs, why Barry is still not independently wealthy despite owning the lab.
The part of his living trust just makes it sound like "Wells" had other things he bequeathed to other people or institutions meaning he didn't just leave it all to Barry, so again them saying he'd also set up a account with funds to keep the lab operating would be more than fair enough to expect.
Your saying your supposed to assume much more than what is actually said, given they specifically say "Wells" left Barry the property, but not anything else and that what he gave Barry was only a partial accounting of his asset's that he had given to other beneficiaries.
Certain things can be left vague, this helps when explaining a situation would take far to long to explain, this isn't one of those times, like I said a single added line of dialogue and this question that is repeatedly brought up over and over again need not ever be asked.