"Has it ever occurred to you that others might not see salary negotiation this way" Yes, it totally did! That's why I am not judging them. I am afraid though y

"Has it ever occurred to you that others might not see salary negotiation this way" Yes, it totally did! That's why I am not judging them. I am afraid though you don't want to understand where I am coming from, either. I understand that people want to have their lives and don't want to fight, politically or economically. It's just good to know who they are. Frankly, I find it curious that people do not want to openly discuss salaries. It's not like the stakes are very high (in Western societies, anyway). But maybe in the U.S. they actually are higher than, say, Norway. It's almost as if collective bargaining is a taboo topic in the U.S. The word "coward" is probably not ideal, but I don't know of a better equivalent. You could take my example, and change "discussing salaries" into "discussing government" in a society which (relatively softly) represses freedom of speech (like for example, communist society in Eastern Europe, where I do come from). So in these hypothetical circumstance, you can make a certain statement, which can be interpreted as being critical of the government, which is a taboo in that society. The other people can either take the bait and break a taboo slightly too, or they might not. It's useful information for you to know whether or not they are willing to break the taboo, because if the push ever comes to shove, for example you would suddenly find yourself in some uncomfortable situation, say somebody from dissent would ask you for help, and you would need help of another person, then you would naturally choose somebody who you know was willing to break the taboo before. So that's the meaning of the word "coward" in that context. It's not being judgemental, because as I said, it would be immoral to force the people to participate (in activity that is considered bad by society and thus taboo). It's a simple test of boundaries, you want to participate or not. "The fairness of my salary is independent of whether the guy next to me makes twice as much or half as much. I couldn't give two shits how much he makes." I don't think it's quite true, because if it truly had been the case, then you wouldn't consider it taboo to discuss it. Just like, you know, we don't consider it taboo to talk about whether or not we have kids or cars and how many.