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“They took what I had developed, replaced me with an idiot that they showed how to work it, and promptly fired me for ‘insubordination.’ I had taken a business asset that was making them $30 grand a year profit and turned it into a million dollar a year program for the company, and they fired me for it to save ~30 grand a year on my salary. Job creators my ass.”There's an inherent conflict of interest and power struggles in many organizations. The business people rarely do create value by themselves; they create the opportunities where value can be created -- and not all businessmen. So when they see something that changes the game, they utilize the convenient clauses in the contract and seize that new power which they can utilize and try and gain the upper hand on others like them. Cynical I know, but it's what I observed first-hand and what many others have told me.
> Ideally, automation decisions would happen collectively, with colleagues’ and peers’ input, so, the gains could be evenly distributed.
Cute, but I don't see this happening anytime soon. Let's face it: most of us fight for scraps from the tables of others, much more rich, people, for most of our lives. Look at a lot of politicians.They start off so idealistic and some of them even strongly believe everything that got them elected. What happens next? We don't know what happens but the end result is that they get more and more disconnected from the problems of the people who elected them. Why do you think that is?
I believe it's because they got their hands on money and connections. Additionally, they worked a LOT to get where they ended up eventually. Tell me, would you like to start over in a brand new area and not get your hands on poorly documented money and just work for a meager official salary? All of that when you are 50+? We the people burn out and we need our efforts to lead to a better future where we work less. IMO it's inevitable.
What I am saying is that I don't feel the need to share a piece of $500,000 a year consultancy with fellow programmers if I do NOT have several beach houses and apartments in downtown areas of several capitals. And have a healthy reserve of money to last me a economical crysis akin to the 2008.
...Basically, I don't see myself being very generous up until I hit 8 figures of income. I am greedy and I am real about it. I don't feel many others are very benevolent and will STAY benevolent when faced with the choice to live peacefully and leisurely with all the financial security they desire vs. taking risks to finance people who might just be looking for a secure paycheck and don't care about the cause you want to invest your wealth into. This is a very real risk and is the reason for the failure of a lot of startups.
But if you have different view I am interested to hear it.
> “The system shouldn't be more important than the individuals who helped make that system relevant.”
That is unequivocally true. And IMO it will never change anyway. :(
The people who collect and get to redistribute wealth are greedy and aren't that stupid that they will invite competition out of a good heart.
