Morality isn't a binary thing.
If we adopt consequentialism, how do we quantify all the good things amongst the bad ones?
Please note that just because the bad ones are most vocal, doesn't mean they will outweigh the good ones.
We are complicit in our employer’s deeds
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Re: We are complicit in our employer’s deeds
#12If BIGCORP is acting outside of labor laws, then there should be legal action. If the law doesn't explicitly outlaw BIGCORP's actions (yet), and we all kinda know that it should, then opposing BIGCORP is the correct thing to do. If Amazon is acting legally, yet in an ugly way, to suppress workers organizing, it seems hard to complain. Now, if Amazon workers exercise the right of free association in their spare time t…
BIGCORP writes the labor laws.
https://www.opensecrets.org/federal-lobbying/clients/summary...
Re: We are complicit in our employer’s deeds
#13The answer to employer abuse is not isolated people refusing to work at big tech companies. You have very little power alone and while refusing to work for a company you find objectionable may ease your conscience, it does little to affect change (unless you’re in a position with a lot of power like Tim). The solution is organization —- forming a union, or banding together behind a political organization or political campaign to affect change. Both of these run very counter to many tech workers’ individualist mindsets but ate much more effective than individual refusal.
Re: We are complicit in our employer’s deeds
#14Thanks for writing this out, there's no disputing the truth in your words. Individual courage can also be found from others, like in the case of Tim's sendoff, no doubt he inspired others to stand up for what they believe in.
Re: We are complicit in our employer’s deeds
#15Everyone will always prioritize the wellbeing of their own family VS some random people in the company you work in. Well-off devs like the guy who quit Amazon don't have $$$ issues, so he can afford to do that. Others don't, and that doesn't make them bad. That makes them care for their family first.
That was sort of the entire point of the writing. Because tech folks are in a privileged class, they have the ability to move jobs based on morals. And therefore they should. Not doing that, when you are making as much as you are as a programmer at BIGCORP means you are complicit in the bad behavior. That was the entire point. He addressed your concern in the first two paragraphs.
If you were to ask my circle of friends and family, even bigcorp programmer money isn’t sufficient to feel secure due to future economic volatility. Especially if your goal is to make sure your kids get to live in the richer neighborhoods and go to the richer schools, and so on and so forth.
And it’s not just a perceived fear. The data shows that if you’re not in the portion of people increasing their rate of income/wealth growth, then you’re in the portion that is decreasing in income/wealth growth, and that compounds for your kids.
I would want a few hundred thousand in passive income before I would say I had FU money, which also means a few million in diversified assets other than my house. Especially in the US, where quality healthcare is a minimum $20k per year for a family in insurance premiums alone plus a few ten thousands in out of pocket costs.
Re: We are complicit in our employer’s deeds
#16Everyone will always prioritize the wellbeing of their own family VS some random people in the company you work in. Well-off devs like the guy who quit Amazon don't have $$$ issues, so he can afford to do that. Others don't, and that doesn't make them bad. That makes them care for their family first.
That was sort of the entire point of the writing. Because tech folks are in a privileged class, they have the ability to move jobs based on morals. And therefore they should. Not doing that, when you are making as much as you are as a programmer at BIGCORP means you are complicit in the bad behavior. That was the entire point. He addressed your concern in the first two paragraphs.
Not all devs have the privilege to make that moral choice. Especially devs who are in the US on a visa.
Unlike Canada / Australia where folks can get a permanent residency relatively quickly based on education + job offer. The US has a long PR process which is tied to a visa, the visa in-turn is tied to an employer, instead of an industry(such as Tech / Software).
So every job switch is rolling the dice and wading through no-mans land. Sure devs can move back to their home country, but that could mean uprooting their lives or even be potentially life-threathening. Moving jobs can be painful, up-rooting lives to move back is a much more terrifying prospect.
Re: We are complicit in our employer’s deeds
#17We are also complicit in our governments' deeds.
Re: We are complicit in our employer’s deeds
#18We technologists like to pretend we're powerful, that we could bring these giant megacorps to their knees because those fancy suits need us, right?
No. They need an engineer, not any one specific engineer. Companies like Amazon reject many candidates that could probably do the job they applied for, but were rejected because they can afford to be picky. If anything changes at Amazon it not be because of the loss of that guy's engineering skills.
What would actually make the world a better place is if we recognized that we're really just well paid technicians, and that the true power in society is held by a relatively small number of people who hold a massive amount of capital. We need to give up the fantasy that we can change things with individual action, and start looking towards collective, society-level solutions to the problems today.
Re: We are complicit in our employer’s deeds
#19Earlier quoted context omitted.
That was sort of the entire point of the writing. Because tech folks are in a privileged class, they have the ability to move jobs based on morals. And therefore they should. Not doing that, when you are making as much as you are as a programmer at BIGCORP means you are complicit in the bad behavior. That was the entire point. He addressed your concern in the first two paragraphs.
Not all devs have the privilege to make that moral choice. Especially devs who are in the US on a visa. Unlike Canada / Australia where folks can get a permanent residency relatively quickly based on education + job offer. The US has a long PR process which is tied to a visa, the visa in-turn is tied to an employer, instead of an industry(such as Tech / Software). So every job switch is rolling the dice and wading th…
Author here. I decline to extend my comments to H1B workers, I agree that they don't enjoy the same level of mobility as programmers who are US citizens. This is a problem in and of itself, but I don't hold H1B's accountable for their employer's deeds due to these extenuating circumstances.
The point of my article is that you should be held accountable for things which are within your control, and for US citizens working as programmers, the choice of where to work is very much within their control.
Re: We are complicit in our employer’s deeds
#20We need more developers start companies and not sell out.