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Comment by minimaxir | Hacker News Reader

> btw if I quit on Feb 1, I'm walking away from half a million dollars in stock. This has some serious monetary consequences for me.

https://twitter.com/lizthegrey/status/1067469950594486272

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I’m not saying anyone should walk away from money. But the same people who want Google to walk away from the world’s largest country aren’t willing to walk away from thier stock but expect Google executives to make financial choices for moral reason.

I don't think walking away from all your stock vs. a company walking away from a deal that would account for a small fraction of its profits is a fair comparison.

A more fair comparison would be asking if employees would be willing to have their stock decrease in value 10% in exchange for their company being more moral. I expect many employees would take such an exchange, although not all.

But those employees who _did not_ care about morality also would have their stock decrease by 10% in value due to no fault of their own. Therefore, it's only ethically correct for those who want to take the stance to also accept a decrease in stock compared to those who didnt.

And if the stock rebounds? Are they then going to forego the rebound?

Or is it "all privilege, no responsibility"?

They can also quit now or yesterday. Why Feb 1? Also most of these folks will get another job that will provide a compensation that largely makes up for unvested stock they haven't got yet. They aren't really walking away from anything, and this seems like a virtue-signaling pat on one's own back.

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