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Comment by vesak | Hacker News Reader

This is why programmers need unions! Or a guild. Or something! That employers totally dictate everything in a field that is in such high demand is absolutely unacceptable.

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Most professionals have some kind of trade organization that sets standard. Doctors, laywers, many types of engineers.

The problem is that programming is so attractive because the barrier for entry is so low that anybody can get into it without problems.

>The problem is that programming is so attractive because the barrier for entry is so low that anybody can get into it without problems.

I'd wager that it's easier to be a quack doctor or a lawyer than fake being a programmer. Most people cannot just grasp the needed details.

Not that it's a competition, though.

You can't go out and open an office as lawyer or doctor without a license. You will get into trouble quickly. You also have to comply with a lot of rules. Anybody can call himself "software engineer" and he can pretty much do whatever he wants. That freedom is the exciting part about software but it has the disadvantage that there is no protection for "software engineers".

Yep, and don't call it a union. Barrier of entry is not a problem, we dont need an organization to limit entry into the field, we just need political representation. Now "tech" in politics means executives/VCs. We just need an association that funds employee friendly lobbying.

There is an organization in the UK, the BCS, that is widely regarded as irrelevant, and no-one can understand how it still exists. It adds zero value to anyone working in the industry and in fact frequently undermines workers for the benefit of large employers or the government. For example it is peddling the "skills shortage" myth.

If we have a guild it needs to be by, and for, actual workers.

Also, I feel most managers & non-tech people take advantage of programmers. You want to build a business out of an app with good programmers but you don't want you chicken to go & lay egg in your neighbor's house.

I'm union, as are most of my colleagues, even though we are highly paid white collar people. The union would step in with lawyers etc if I got into some kind of trouble.

I think we need the same at least an organization we can belong to with the sole purpose of protecting our creative freedoms via lawsuit defense etc... I'm also willing to promote the cause on my YouTube channel with close to 5 million tech viewers for FREE. This article really pissed me off.

Chris Hawkes

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