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I have a feeling that one of these cloud companies is going to have a mass firing of employees that are protesting against government contracts. People underest

I have a feeling that one of these cloud companies is going to have a mass firing of employees that are protesting against government contracts. People underestimate just how much money the US government spends. Just DoD spending is more than 600 Billion per year. Microsoft and Google have annual revenue of 100 Billion. The $10 Billion Pentagon cloud contract immediately gives a huge boost to any cloud provider. As can be seen by most of these companies dealings with very repressive governments (China, Saudi Arabia, etc), they will talk a good game, but when serious money is on the line, they will do what they need to do to get the money. I bet that in back rooms, high level cloud execs at Hear companies are hearing an earful about how they need to control their employees and part of getting the big contracts requires controlling your employees. Just look at how the NFL caved in when Trump accused them of not supporting soldiers. Will these companies stay the line when Trump starts saying that these companies are hurting American soldiers and police officers? I am not confident they will.

confounded 8y ago
Google and Facebook are known to retain the services of Pinkerton Corporate Risk Management for employee surveillance. They’re a pretty famous name in US labor history! https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2018/mar/16/silicon-valley-internal-work-spying-surveillance-leakers https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2018/mar/16/silicon-v... https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pinkerton_(detective_agency) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pinkerton_(detective_agency)
TangoTrotFox 8y ago
I imagine many very large companies internally view themselves as above politics. Most peoples' political views wax and wane as a reflection of whatever is happening at a given moment in time and especially whatever is trending in the media and social media. By contrast consider individuals like Jeff Bezos. He wants to advance humanity into a commercial space age and is working extensively and at great cost to do just that. And that change will radically shift society in ways that would make many of our current issues seem quite trite, and even render others completely obsolete. So what various political leaders or even nations are doing is not necessarily material to his goal. I wouldn't see it as a double-faced 'talking a good game', but rather understanding that what companies say in any region is little more than a product of their public relations teams, if not only because of apathy. I also don't think they would ever fire individuals in large quantities over anything like this. There's a much easier solution. Turnover in tech companies is huge. All they need to do is change their hiring preferences and in a decade the company could have almost entirely shifted the ethos of their workforce without having had to fire a single person.
Nasrudith 8y ago
I doubt that will happen or if it does it will end poorly for them. DOD contracts are very diffuse and Lockheed Martin made only $36B in revenue and they are the top with expenses from "the game" like offices in every district they need for political support. The fact that the hot areas have absurd cost of living and companies keep paying it instead of moving to cheaper locales and attempts to do so have failed is quite telling.
kevin_b_er 8y ago
They will learn Bezos considers workers fungible too.

confounded 8y ago

Google and Facebook are known to retain the services of Pinkerton Corporate Risk Management for employee surveillance. They’re a pretty famous name in US labor history! https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2018/mar/16/silicon-valley-internal-work-spying-surveillance-leakers https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2018/mar/16/silicon-v... https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pinkerton_(detective_agency) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pinkerton_(detective_agency)

TangoTrotFox 8y ago

I imagine many very large companies internally view themselves as above politics. Most peoples' political views wax and wane as a reflection of whatever is happening at a given moment in time and especially whatever is trending in the media and social media. By contrast consider individuals like Jeff Bezos. He wants to advance humanity into a commercial space age and is working extensively and at great cost to do just that. And that change will radically shift society in ways that would make many of our current issues seem quite trite, and even render others completely obsolete. So what various political leaders or even nations are doing is not necessarily material to his goal. I wouldn't see it as a double-faced 'talking a good game', but rather understanding that what companies say in any region is little more than a product of their public relations teams, if not only because of apathy. I also don't think they would ever fire individuals in large quantities over anything like this. There's a much easier solution. Turnover in tech companies is huge. All they need to do is change their hiring preferences and in a decade the company could have almost entirely shifted the ethos of their workforce without having had to fire a single person.

Nasrudith 8y ago

I doubt that will happen or if it does it will end poorly for them. DOD contracts are very diffuse and Lockheed Martin made only $36B in revenue and they are the top with expenses from "the game" like offices in every district they need for political support. The fact that the hot areas have absurd cost of living and companies keep paying it instead of moving to cheaper locales and attempts to do so have failed is quite telling.

kevin_b_er 8y ago

They will learn Bezos considers workers fungible too.