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Comment by dareutodownvote | Hacker News Reader

Overpaid FAANG executives humble bragging about walking away from millions because of a sudden crisis of conscience qualifies as an entire genre at this point and my only question is why did it take these people so long to realize they were working for Evil Corp?

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The same reasons a vast number of HN works in either adtech, or companies which don't employ or give benefits to their janitors but have them as contractors, or have very poor privacy, or have a huge rent seeking mindset due to their monopolistic position, and several other unethical companies.

It's because it gives them challenging problems, and money to continue their current lifestyle as is.

If people here are working in companies whose behaviour they find totally ethical in all regards, please give your employer a shout. It will help widen the perspective of others.

“ totally ethical in all regards“ is a high bar. But at least try building real products for real people, not scummy adtech spyware.

Despite its flaws (eg drug prices) working in biotech is pretty awesome. I get to support work in treating cancer, figuring out covid, stopping rare diseases.

Give it a look y’all. Working in ad “tech” is trading your soul for $$. Get out.

https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2019/dec/16/a...

Obviously ethics are on a spectrum. I'm pretty happy with my employer - a science-driven NGO using tech that's cheap to scale (telephony) with the aim of reducing poverty. Not perfect, but among other things I've been quite impressed by how the COVID crisis has been handled.

>It's because it gives them challenging problems, and money to continue their current lifestyle as is.

Chasing resume prestige belongs on that list.

For folks insecure enough to chase resume prestige, the money part is much more important enough than challenging problems part. The problems part is more important for people who have already enough cash in the bank to be financially secure enough to stop working for a long time.

Probably some big event had to happen to put a giant spot light, though if you read the comments in the previous HN thread there are many that still don't see any problem with Amazon, as long as someone gets paid 1 cent and can quit then you can exploit the person to the limit the laws allow you.

Who is getting paid 1 cent though? Or are you unaware of the fact that Amazon pays in the top percentile for warehouse work?

I am referring to the people that promote the idea that there should not be a minimum salary , that free market and freedom is always the solution, I am referring to people that say "you don't like it don't work there, nothing is forcing you"

About Amazon the issue did not appear to be the money but the working conditions and now with the virus this people are exposing themselves and family to risk Amazon should focus on reducing that risk and not on exploiting the situation to make the biggest profits ever.

> exploiting the situation to make the biggest profits ever.

But what makes you think they are trying to exploit the situation to make the biggest profit ever? On the contrary, their quarterly guidance say they expect all of Q2 profits to be spent on COVID19 related expenditure.

>Or are you unaware of the fact that Amazon pays in the top percentile for warehouse work?

That's like saying, "For a slave owner, X was quite generous with his subjects" - the bar is quite low to begin with...

I imagine if you were earning a million a year at your really nice job that you'd worked your ass off for 20 years to acquire, you'd overlook quite a lot of not-really-nice-but-that's-business-isn't-it treatment of some of the peripheral staff who probably don't even work in your city let alone your building.

Hero of our own story bias? The incentives are lined up to make naivete very comfortable for some people.

> and my only question is why did it take these people so long to realize they were working for Evil Corp?

Everyone has a different tolerance on how much bullshit they'll tolerate near them.

As for "overpaid": I'd wish more employees, not just across the IT industry but everywhere, were paid according to the value they create for the business with their work. At the moment, many see labor costs as a "race to the bottom" with most value going to shareholders - unsustainable for society in the long term, as all the stuff that companies are selling needs buyers, and it will get really nasty if the only ones able to afford more than absolutely necessary items such as food and clothing without going deep in debt are a couple of rich elites.

Going deep into debt is the point. What do you think stabilisation by interest rate requires? Lots of people terrified of foreclosure.

Which company isn't Evil Corp? I can argue for most every company small and large out there being "evil" in some tangible way.

No. Don’t fall for this. Just because every company has some aspect that is bad, it doesn’t mean they are the same.

You can differentiate. It is not hard. Some extremes: Patagonia vs. Outbrain. Gates Foundaton vs. Juul. Same?

By that same rationale all humans are evil, so there is no point in differentiating.

I don't know man, I think Juul is pretty questionable too.

I never said they were the same but rather that from someone's perspective your employer is also evil. Yet you are fine working there. That same feeling and justification and reasoning applies to someone working at a company that you view as evil. The line in the sand you chose is fairly arbitrary and you shouldn't view yourself as a paragon of ethics versus someone who chose a line slightly further away.

Both these things are true. 1. A line in the sand is arbitrary. 2. There are huge differences in the ethical behavior of companies (as there are among people)

2 is the one that is important to recognize and where we in tech should have conversations. 1 is a semantic distraction and an excuse to avoid responsibility.

Worker coops?

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