Point to a single person who cannot quit their job right now?
The one who has bills.
Someone who likes to eat.
Do you live at home still?
That's a curious question. Don't most people live "at home"? I'm guessing you mean "do you live with your parents still". Do most people consider their parent's house(s) "home" even after they move out? I sure don't.
I brought what clothes I had previously purchased myself from a minimum wage job I held for a few years prior. Growing up, if we wanted something, we worked for it (physical labor beginning around age 13). After moving out, I didn't eat much/well for a while there and got into debt because I didn't have a stable job/steady income for years to come.
When I realized that the subsidized housing that I landed was contingent upon providing "favors" to the landlord, I elected to go homeless at age 19. Couchsurfing, van life, camping, etc. Way of the road...
A couple years later I would file for bankruptcy flat broke - financially & morally.
The story continues for years of trial and tribulation without any familial or government support because I realized that dependencies are antithetical to personal growth and development. Eventually, I started my a company and during the first three years I worked on that for 60 hrs a week while netting less than minimum wage (eventually it paid off when I sold).
No-one is an island. It was because I opted-into (and out of) certain situations and relationships along the way (and developed proper human relations + work ethic) some amazing people extended their support at the right place in time. They will never be forgotten and are reminded to this day of the roles they had in shaping my world. I earned the trust and respect in every one of those relationships, those breaks, and those helping hands.
Establishing self-agency is step #1. Learning and living a life of self-reliance is #2. Once you accept, understand, and embody - there is nothing one cannot do and that is my message.
It forces those with troubled egos to share. There is nothing more certain in life than telling someone they haven't had it hard enough to bring up their hardship story.
You are thinking through your own len. If I was able to make it everyone else should too. Quit your job immediately if you are unhappy or not getting paid enough is what you said. That's bad advice for those not looking forward. Accept short term paid for longer term gain.
Not everyone is an engineer who have employers fawning over them. A lot of people have few prospects of employment - especially right now - and have bills to pay. So weighing the two options : no food this month, or installing spyware willingly they take the easiest route.
Have you considered that you may be engaging with and replying to someone who falls into this category? What makes you think I am or speaking from the POV of an engineer who has employers fawning over them?
Beyond that though - why do you think that people do not have the ability to exercise their own choice in the matter? The final paragraph of this article literally underscores my point:
"Rather than download the software on her computer, she opted out."
So your assumptions of who you are interacting with on this topic appear ignorant, your belief in other people inability to choose whats best for them suggests you do not respect their power, meanwhile you've created the only extreme - as in extremely unlikely scenario - whereby people are forced to choose between self-administered surveillance or starvation.
I don't think it's as unlikely as you seem to believe. There are no stats being brought forward on either side, so I don't see how your scenario is less or more likely than mine. And I am merely trying to empathize with the people for whom this is the sad reality.
I'm totally open to changing my mind that this hypothetical person doesn't exist in the US, if you'd like to bring forward a peer reviewed study on the subject.
This is one of the very few times I've seen someone make a serious argument on HN so ridiculous, I cannot believe this is real. And not only make it in the first place, but then also double- and triple-down on it.
Yes I hear from people like this often.
Why do you think they continue working?
Some do continue doing things they hate, while others don't and they change their situation. Those that hate their job but don't change, I don't know their reasoning? Learned helplessness? Lazyness?
"Or maybe it is because if they quit, they won't have an easily available opportunity waiting for them, that would allow to feed their family, pay bills, etc.?"
What is easy? What is hard? That's too subjective - I'm not passing judgement in that area, just know that it's possible to change - always - no matter what anyone on HN says.
Same thing. The capability to make the decision may be present, but an unwillingness to acknowledge that there are practical limits to the capability to execute on that decision without jeopardizing the decider's capability to fulfill higher priority commitments (family/self safety, food, transport, shelter, medical care) demonstrates a malicious willingness to indulge in the discount of the interests of others when it is to the convenience of oneself.
Just to head it off; no, morally speaking, it is your problem when you know they have no other options. You are just as much a contributor to their state of affairs through employment of abusive labor practices as they are. You drag down everyone by going above and beyond to lower the bar of acceptable business practices. If that doesn't concern you the least bit, then I'm not sure continued conversation will be fruitful in any way.