Are you advocating for mob violence against CEOs for laying people off?
Understand: accountability has a way of manifesting itself one way or another. Today, we complain on the internet. Next week, we see more riots where people tag walls with "eat the rich." Next year, the guillotines come out. [1]
[1] This is a loose analogy that is not meant to be taken literally.
Sure it's not the same amount of money, but you seem to be suggesting we should claw back compensation if someone doesn't do their job.
You really want to open that can of worms?
And there's this sense of 'Eat the rich', which is trying to find a scapegoat for a... Company whose operations depended on access to cheap credit is laying people off... In an environment where the Fed is actively trying to create unemployment, by raising the cost of credit.
Hilarious how employees who make a salary 3-4X the US median somehow think they are the proletariat.
Nobody here is saying they desire that type of violent unrest, they're saying it's a likely outcome unless we change course, because as bad as it is for tech workers right now it's so much worse for those less privileged.
There's also the realisation that if even the most highly skilled workers in society can be treated so cavalierly and have not have enough certainty of employment and success then the system is broken.
When they start lining people up claiming you’re “middle class” making $400k per year isn’t likely going to work.
The social contract is out of whack, and just because a lot of people struggling might look at tech workers as part of the problem (and not be entirely wrong, given tech's role in automating away jobs), doesn't mean those of us in the industry ought to then side with billionaires and the ever more concentrated concentration of capital. It means we should be doing our best to make sure the system becomes more equitable.
I see a lot of people talking like they’re on the same side as labor while lamenting their equity only returned 50% and not 300% like last year.
Most are labor, as properly defined. They may earn less, but it's the same business relationship.
Few here would not recognize their privileged position in US society ( edit: come to think of it, almost any society today; even in North Korea, hackers are deemed useful if I remember correctly and fare better under that regime than rest of the population; still, I wanted to focus on US ). And I think most here know that a mob won't be particularly inclined to ask multiple choice questions or introspection to determine your social status ( as you indicated with kulaks example.. just having a farm will be enough ) and allegiance to the cause.
The issue is, however, that system is indeed broken. Just the other day I had a conversation with business owner, who claimed WFH is bad, because a chat with a person isn't fast enough ( implication being if I can't yell at you in person, it does not count ), things are delayed/wrong ( because of WFH ) and I will either return and comply or be replaced. The interesting thing about it is that he was actually trying to restrain himself as I was not his employee ( but the guy was angry ). He stopped talking to me once I asked if he thinks that it seems like the communication is the issue to solve here. But the guy was not interested in a solution. He ran that business for decades now. This is just how he operates and does not want to adjust. And that is ok, but I get a distinct feeling this is how managers across US are feeling.
They want to be able to just issue vague layoff threats to get people in line. I am almost certain that I wrote this here before, but as one overheard manager bemoaned 'I had to throw my entire toolbox away for Covid.' Manager class does not want to change what they had and see now as an opportunity to re-establish pre-covid power structure, which was already out of whack. They had a good tool and covid ruined it.
From manager's perspective, the issue comes from the fact that knowledge workers are not as easily located to be replaced. There is simply less of a pool of desirable candidates. Even for relatively easy ( and popular now ) things to learn like Python, it is hard for multiple reasons including one, where HR and sometimes even hiring manager does not know much about.
FWIW, I buy that there is some level of resentment from lower middle class ( even though I do perceive myself as a part of middle class now, which gives you an idea of how easily distorted concept is is - maybe we should start talking about income brackets; that would maybe open some eyes ) and below.
My main point stands though. There is anger. It has to be addressed. When stuff like that is not addressed, bad things happen ( usually across the board including eventually to the mob if French revolution is any indicator ). HN crowd may well be 'kulaks' in today's society ( although I would dispute that comparison ), but it does not change the validity of previous sentence.
The workers are the people truly suffering. Not getting laid off with a cushy severance package or not being allowed to work from home.
While many on HN see themselves as the oppressed working class I can promise you the lower class don’t see it that way at all. Engineers in Silicon Valley are the rich. Sure not billionaires, but far wealthy beyond what the lower classes could ever imagine.
The workers are the people truly suffering. Not getting laid off with a cushy severance package or not being allowed to work from home.
There can be suffering in both, this isn't a competition. Someone on an H1B visa supporting parents and parts of their family getting laid off can really struggle even if they're earning a good wage. So we can have sympathy, and empathy, for both.
While many on HN see themselves as the oppressed working class
I don't see any evidence of this, on this thread or elsewhere. I'll also note that many, if not most of the engineers posting on HN are not SV engineers, and are not getting the sky high salaries and equity that are common in the Valley.
But that aside, again nobody is saying that tech workers are uniquely worse off than anyone, they're saying that the system is rotten for pretty much anyone and that the increasing concentration of capital is a bad thing that'll eventually result in worse outcomes for everyone.
Your argument seems to be that because the working class see tech workers as part of the problem that tech workers should treat them as enemies and keep them downtrodden, and do nothing to try to fix the current system.
I'm sure someone educated enough to use the internet can argue in good faith and relativate what the human world equivalent of chimp behavior would be.