Comment by specialist | Hacker News Reader

Comment by specialist | Hacker News Reader

Two big reasons.

#1 Abundant labor, meaning buyers market, so developers don't have leverage. This has a pretty good primer on the topic:

Democracy At Work

https://www.amazon.com/Democracy-at-Work-Cure-Capitalism/dp/...

#2 I'm as pinko commie liberal socialist as they come, and I can't imagine how even the most well intentioned (least alt-factual neo-reactionary libertarian) group of developers can coordinate collectively. Said another way, I can't imagine preventing the free-rider, defector problem.

This book covers the sociology of collective action:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Logic_of_Collective_Action

Maybe, just maybe, there's a unifying issue or policy, like protecting privacy rights, that could motivate most developers to pull in the same direction... Just to throw out an idea as an example.

Wow you and I live in alternate universes. In my experience, and having been without work at various times, and freelancing... I believe developers are scarce. You need an aptitude and some (self?) training to take part and a lot of people can't be bothered.

That being said, I see you describe yourself as a "pinko commie" and as a business owner who was at one time a union administrator in a past life I would never hire you, so perhaps that explains the bubble you are living in.

Good developers are scarce, bad ones aren't.

I guess if you aren't good you start calling yourself a "pinko commie" as if it was a virtue!

I think this is probably the crux of why organizing isn't appealing for developers / tech workers.

There is huge disparity and in worker skill levels, productivity and salaries. Lots of mediocre developers on, say $60,000, but also lots of guys on $150,000 and up, with pretty different concerns (e.g., maybe the guy on $200,000 can live with a few late nights).

Pretty different from, say, auto workers or bus drivers where you have thousands of staff at the same skill and salary level, with the same interests and concerns.

"as a business owner ... I would never hire you"

Darn.

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