I constantly see developers say they are paid well but treated poorly by their employers (unpaid overtime, oncall rotations, receding benefits). A union fights for what people need, and we absolutely should be unionizing to advocate for all the workers.
I feel like a substantial portion of HN is basically College Republicans who majored in CS.
If I didn't want this I'd work at a big company.....
We'll get unions about the same time it becomes normalized for developers to talk about seeing a therapist.
I know a guy who mentions his therapist regularly, and I overheard a conversation with a mutual friend about how he needed therapy for years (none of us disagree) but he didn't go until he worked with someone who was also open about it. He said something like wanting to be that guy for other people. He's an odd duck. Occasionally wise, but often plays the fool.
One thing I've noticed about remote work is that I talk out loud to people so much less than I used to that when I do dive into a meaty conversation I tend to get a sore throat and afterward I feel like I dove on the conversation like a starving man on a sandwich. That's not strictly healthy.
I think for some of us even a scheduled hour talking to someone per week would be good, especially now. And frankly my understanding of the New York Movie Therapist trope is that they are often portrayed somewhere between life coach and lunch buddy. The joke there being that people have gone to therapy for years without any real progress being made. Clearly not real, but then again jokes often grow from a seed of truth.
They also all seem to arrogantly believe themselves to be in the top 10% of their peer developers, in terms of compensation, ability to negotiate, bargaining power vs employer, and other workplace attributes; and are therefore hostile to any system that could fairly represent the interests of all the workers. "I'm a captain of my industry, and am already paid so much more than my peer developers," software developers imagine, "A union could only make things worse for me!"
I've heard a few people claim that charity often comes down to realizing that as hard as you worked, things could have gone much worse for you if your luck had broken a different way, and so they feel fortunate for what they have and give some of it back when they can.
As much as some people try to deny it, equality always comes down to an alliance between people with privilege coming to the aid of those without. These underdog stories about a fringe group rising up and conquering the majority are good PR, but the uncomfortable truth is that some groups fail eternally and some groups succeed quickly and that usually comes down to collusion or overt collaboration with as many insiders as they can recruit. PETA is so obnoxious they've become a parody of themselves, and Greenpeace is not far behind, because nobody wants (only) a lecture.