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Samsung chip workers will get an average $340k bonus as AI profits soar

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101–110 of 207 posts

Re: Samsung chip workers will get an average $340k bonus as AI profits soar

#101
post #88
post #49

Earlier quoted context omitted.

People are billionaires because they “share with society”. They take a small fraction of the wealth and surplus they create. If you create $6 of value for every American and capture half of it you are a billionaire. “Public investments” besides are heavily spent on. The majority of the US federal budget goes to welfare. If you want new infrastructure and so on, the primary blockers are the universal veto powers we ha…

People are billionaires because they “share with society”. I appreciate that this is a flippant remark, but there are crypto billionaires proving that there are exceptions to this assertion.

Contributing nothing isn't even the worst case. There are also people who make their fortunes costing society. The Sackler family made insane amounts of wealth as literal serial killers. The CEO of Nestlé make a ton of money killing babies. The folks at DuPont made huge profits knowingly poisoning people (and ultimately the entire planet). Some of the wealthiest individuals are also the most sick and dangerous people who have ever existed and are responsible for incalculable damages to society. The worst part is that they usually bribe their way out of any actual accountability for what they do.

Re: Samsung chip workers will get an average $340k bonus as AI profits soar

#102

That's literally insane for Korean living standards. Those people can basically retire

I think if they retire Samsung loses bunch of knowledge that is required for keeping lights up.

I don’t think they will be allowed to retire.

Re: Samsung chip workers will get an average $340k bonus as AI profits soar

#104

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I find this complaint hard to square when US developers earn "moon money" compared to both: a) fields requiring similar levels of expertise like EE or Mech-E and b) international developers in similar roles. Plus, equity. [GIF of Woody Harrelson wiping tears with money]

Professional athletes and pilots have unions. They both make considerably more than your average programmer, even in FAANG and even with equity.

This leverage all has to do with the product, how close you are to it and how valuable it is. FAANG product is valuable, but the programmers are still just creating it and usually a small part of it at that. Pilots are the product when the product is "get plane to destination" they are the 1 or 2 people providing that product (ok service). Athletes are the product of sports. It's very valuable and there's only a dozen or so of them to deliver.

Now, using the leverage is the difficulty to unionize. Athletes are a tiny group, pretty easy to organize. Pilots are a small group, also pretty easy to unionize. The fact they have to be licensed means there is a record for all the people needed pull in. Software engineers seem to be 5x-20x larger population than commercial pilots (quick/rough searches). They have no certification or registry organization and have no common affiliations. It's incredibly difficult to organize this group. There's also no regulatory capture requiring developers to be US citizens so, if you did unionize and tried to negotiate too hard the industry would just move away from the US so there's just not a lot of leverage this profession has.

Re: Samsung chip workers will get an average $340k bonus as AI profits soar

#106
post #66

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes, and the contributions from those parents were so valuable that the society still owes them, even long after their death. That's why we pay our dues to their children and grandchildren.

You might be living inside a philosophy book about capitalism. Do you know about the existence of Russian oligarchs and their offspring? Or Texan billionaires that one day woke up and found out they were living on top of oil? What contribution did they give to society?

Well, I can give you Russian oligarchs - they came to their wealth during time of chaos, and mostly through stealing. But Texan oil billionaires? They won their wealth fair and square, if not for anything else then for just recognizing an opportunity and acting on it. Believe me, there are many people in this world who would blew it in stupid ways.

Re: Samsung chip workers will get an average $340k bonus as AI profits soar

#107
post #73

Earlier quoted context omitted.

We’ve gotta add American Liberals, majority of Democratic Party to the list. The Sanders faction is unfortunately not yet the prevailing force.

Around the world "liberal" is synonymous with "capitalist". US is pretty unique in that it considers liberalism a leftwing ideology

No longer true; the left wing in the U.S. started splitting from the liberals over a decade ago and that's more or less complete at this point.

Re: Samsung chip workers will get an average $340k bonus as AI profits soar

#108

This is what bonuses would average out to in the US as well. It’s just that the CEO would get $100 million and the workers maybe $10k each. Does the article say how it’s going to work?

> Does the article say how it’s going to work?

You pay them the bonus, it shows on the pay cheque, like every salary bonus. What about this is something you'd expect in an article?

Re: Samsung chip workers will get an average $340k bonus as AI profits soar

#109
post #51

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In all honesty, I’d rather get paid the $500k/yr people make here than have a union negotiate a $350k one time bonus in a time of unprecedented success. Given these two options, I’m not that eager to have their system.

$500k/yr? Do you think a lot of people make that much?

I mean, on levels.fyi the 90th percentile in San Francisco is 500k. Most of HN is tech workers in the bay area.

The average person on hacker news is easily in the 90th percentile of software engineers, so yeah, I wouldn't be surprised if the most people here make somewhere around there.

The biggest confounding factor is the other fact that most HN users are startup founders living off ramen in Peter Thiel's garage, so that probably brings down the average some.

Re: Samsung chip workers will get an average $340k bonus as AI profits soar

#110
post #93

That's literally insane for Korean living standards. Those people can basically retire

You can retire in Korea on 200K after tax?

If a person has already made progress on their retirement goals, then an additional 200K can certainly help to reach the goal faster.
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