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Do you struggle to find ethical work?

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21–30 of 88 posts

Re: Do you struggle to find ethical work?

#21

I think your picture of the world is too negative. Defence is a necessary evil, because otherwise you will be governed by thugs. Financial services enable people without capital to build things. While there are surely material things that you consider vain, consumption is a good thing that improves people's lives.

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Re: Do you struggle to find ethical work?

#22

Why defence is unethical? I wish you arent forced to reevaluate your opinion by war like the one on Ukraine right now. If I were your enemy, then I'd really try hard to push such narrative.

Because you don't even give someone else the chance to not build a weapon.

Ukraine decided to trust others and disarmed (nuclear). 2-3 decades passed and they have to fight for their lifes

Re: Do you struggle to find ethical work?

#23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Because you don't even give someone else the chance to not build a weapon.

well, there are mutual disarmament treaties. Like the ones that are being cancelled by russia right now.

Worldwide militarism is a problem, it's a shame that governments still see force as a legitimate means of policy, and investment in force capabilities rather than mutually beneficial peaceful ones. Such waste, such idiocy.

Perhaps our new AI overlords will be wiser

Re: Do you struggle to find ethical work?

#24
I think you may have an unrealistic view of what is an ethical company. The world is a complicated mess of difficult situations. Oil can raise people out of poverty, defence can save the futures of people from aggressors, the world of finance can do a lot of good too. Everything, more or less, is double edged if you dig deep enough.

Perhaps bring your ethical values to those industries you see as problematic. Otherwise, you're leaving those industries to people with different ethical views. (And that seems unethical).

Re: Do you struggle to find ethical work?

#25

Why defence is unethical? I wish you arent forced to reevaluate your opinion by war like the one on Ukraine right now. If I were your enemy, then I'd really try hard to push such narrative.

Because you are building stuff to kill people. Even the doublespeak of naming it defence is atrocious. It might be justifiable in some cases like the current weapon shipments to Ukraine, but not if they are used in something like the Iraqi war. And you definitely wont be the one who decides where the weapon you helped to make is used.

Re: Do you struggle to find ethical work?

#26
From personal experience: Education and third sector (charities), or the companies that support them. All the universities I've ever dealt with have an ancient patchwork of backend systems, many of which are on the .NET side of the fence. Fair warning: you're not going to get fintech money in the third sector.

(Lot of people telling you your personal line in the sand is wrong, rather than just answering the damn question. "Try to change an arms manufacturer from within as a grunt programmer" is especially out-there).

Re: Do you struggle to find ethical work?

#27

Why defence is unethical? I wish you arent forced to reevaluate your opinion by war like the one on Ukraine right now. If I were your enemy, then I'd really try hard to push such narrative.

I won't comment on Ukraine specifically, however, the military industrial complexes of Western countries aggressively lobby for forever wars so that they can profit endlessly.

So, fix this particular problem?

Like, deploying army isnt a decision of some random ceo that wants stock to go up 10%

Re: Do you struggle to find ethical work?

#28
It depends on your ethical guidelines.

I think that working in weapon industries helps to maintain peace by deterring autocrats and dictators from taking over the world (and there are a lot of them right now, so it is absolutely moral and necessary to maintain strong defence force for democratic countries).

Efficient open markets are contributing to the world peace by maintaining interconnected world. It is difficult to wage war with countries you trade with. And financial service companies are contributing to the global trade and therefore world peace.

Oil and gas are a declining industry (however, there is a lot to be done there to help it decline safely and ecologically responsibly). Nuclear power, however, is absolutely necessary for energy transitioning and mitigating climate change.

Only adtech cannot be redeemed.

Re: Do you struggle to find ethical work?

#29

Why defence is unethical? I wish you arent forced to reevaluate your opinion by war like the one on Ukraine right now. If I were your enemy, then I'd really try hard to push such narrative.

At this point nothing is clean in the current economy in the world. The current world is build by warlords (British Empire), robber baron (Rocketfeller, Ford), drug dealers (HSBC), or descendant of them. But some of us may have fiduciary duties to our family or dependants, or student loans, this is only reason that big corp can get people working for them.

If you don't have any of these responsibilities, then do something else that is meaningful for your life.

Re: Do you struggle to find ethical work?

#30

How do you define "ethical"? Oil & gas are an essential ingredient for lifting some societies from extreme poverty. No oil & gas would mean not being able to transport a baby to the hospital or heat their room. "Fast-fashion with questionable supply chains" is only a first-world problem. In some countries, "fast fashion" is all people can afford.

Oil & gas industries have been aware of our path towards climite change for decades and have actively worked to suppress and discredit the science.

They use their wealth to lobby against the transition to renewable energy. Only in recent years have they started to green-wash now that public opinion is more unified on the topic.

The list of their crimes against the environment is endless. They make billions of dollars in profit and yet insist in cutting corners that lead to disasterous oil spills.

Read about what Chevron did to Steven Donziger, who had the audacity to stand up to them.

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