“Team blind” indeed.

    • @southerntofu
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      2 years ago

      I strongly disagree with this. Or rather, i agree in general, but in what world is it normal for a worker to make >200K€/year? The problem is multiple:

      • we (as a society) are buying the silence and complicity of the IT class in building inhumane technology ; would most IT people really work on user-hostile as they do for minimum wage?

      • the ethical jobs, more often than not, don’t pay as much: there’s many IT jobs in public service or for small non-profits, but talent is often driven to such big corps with 5-digits pay

      • high IT wages drive rent and other services up: if Google buses get stoned in the Bay area, it’s because Silicon Valley is directly responsible for organizing gentrification and driving thousands of people homeless ; even some teachers are homeless in Silicon Valley!!

      I’ve never been paid more than 1-2 minimum wages in IT. I’m not jealous of people making that kind of money, although i’m pretty convinced i would have much better use (as in, redistributing) that kind of money than startup bros do. I just think the reasons and consequences of why some IT people are paid such crazy amounts are very wrong from an anticapitalist perspective.

      As the elder sang, which side are you on? If you’re willing to make quarter million dollars per year so that you don’t get unionized and don’t ask questions about political implications about your job, well that’s too bad. I guess IT people are just as corruptible as the rest of humanity :-)

      EDIT: Also something else important to consider beyond social status. Paying tech workers too much creates the illusion that IT drives value creation, while often tech workers produce nothing of value. Real value is “created” (extracted?) by real work: making food, renovating a house, sewing clothes… People are driven to IT to gain quick/dirty money because overproduction from the industry (which is burning our planet a bit more everyday) led to a speculative bubble in the creative sector where a tiny minority at the top is paid unfathomable amounts while the majority has horrible working conditions (gamedev industry, anyone?). But the IT class is useless and helpless without people to feed them and service them: they’re often so full of themselves thinking they’re the reason the world can go round, when in fact IT more often than not produces a net negative “win” for society.

      EDIT EDIT: Just in case it wasn’t clear, i stand for the abolition of private property and money. But in the meantime, i don’t think social hierarchies placing eg. IT people on top, can be justified. I mean if a company also pays their cooks/cleaners 200K€/year, i don’t have a problem with it: i’ve just never heard of an IT company like that.