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Yes but it is time to revisit that logic. Software engineers are well compensated relative to the rest of the population but that should not be a factor at all

Yes but it is time to revisit that logic. Software engineers are well compensated relative to the rest of the population but that should not be a factor at all. Its all about value delivered relative to that organization, in aggregate. Wages have stagnated for 30 years. There is a lot of catching up to do: Until a single earner can afford a family home outright, in 5 years of compensation, down the street from where the company office is, then we can comfortably ignore any annual compensation package no matter how fantastic the dollar amounts seem, and collectively push for more.

ralfd 5y ago
Houses are positional goods. If you earn five times as much, your colleagues will too, and there will be a bidding war until the price matches your earning power again. See also: The absurd real estate prices in the Bay area. Elizabeth Warren made that argument in her book "The Two-Income Trap". The economic gains from switching from the traditional bread-winner/house-wife household to double-income-households were eaten up to buy the "family home down the street where the best school is". https://slatestarcodex.com/2014/06/28/book-review-the-two-income-trap/ https://slatestarcodex.com/2014/06/28/book-review-the-two-in...
- thaumasiotes 5y ago
  > Houses are positional goods. If you earn five times as much, your colleagues will too, and there will be a bidding war until the price matches your earning power again. This requires the assumption that additional houses can't be constructed. > See also: The absurd real estate prices in the Bay area. See also: the Bay area.
  - ejb999 5y ago
    >>This requires the assumption that additional houses can't be constructed. In a lot of places near expensive cities, that assumption is pretty valid.
- eru 5y ago
  Well, a big problem for the US is that building most types of new housing is illegal. See eg https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Missing_middle_housing https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Missing_middle_housing or your favourite articles on the evils of Euclidean zoning and minimum parking requirements.
eru 5y ago
Wages have not stagnated. What inflation measures do you use to come to that conclusion? You are right that real estate has become more expensive over time in many places. A big part of the problem (in the US) is that new construction of housing is almost illegal. See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Missing_middle_housing https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Missing_middle_housing
altacc 5y ago
Throughout history a form of control has been to make people feel that they're better off than some other group of people, and so have more power, privilege & life is as good as it is likely to get. However it also comes with the implicit warning that they could lose that specialness if the boat was rocked. There is always somebody better off and with more power dictating that hierarchy to bother groups and the only way to address that imbalance is by collaboration and for employees, unionisation is a way to do that. Tech workers are very much in that hierarchy and think that they're better off than most other people, so don't need a union. As a unionised, European tech worker it is quite likely that I have far more protections from my employer's whims than those in largely non-unionised countries (automatic minimum pay rises, job security, holidays, working hours, etc...) and I very much prefer it this way.

ralfd 5y ago

Houses are positional goods. If you earn five times as much, your colleagues will too, and there will be a bidding war until the price matches your earning power again. See also: The absurd real estate prices in the Bay area. Elizabeth Warren made that argument in her book "The Two-Income Trap". The economic gains from switching from the traditional bread-winner/house-wife household to double-income-households were eaten up to buy the "family home down the street where the best school is". https://slatestarcodex.com/2014/06/28/book-review-the-two-income-trap/ https://slatestarcodex.com/2014/06/28/book-review-the-two-in...

thaumasiotes 5y ago
> Houses are positional goods. If you earn five times as much, your colleagues will too, and there will be a bidding war until the price matches your earning power again. This requires the assumption that additional houses can't be constructed. > See also: The absurd real estate prices in the Bay area. See also: the Bay area.
- ejb999 5y ago
  >>This requires the assumption that additional houses can't be constructed. In a lot of places near expensive cities, that assumption is pretty valid.
eru 5y ago
Well, a big problem for the US is that building most types of new housing is illegal. See eg https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Missing_middle_housing https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Missing_middle_housing or your favourite articles on the evils of Euclidean zoning and minimum parking requirements.

eru 5y ago

Wages have not stagnated. What inflation measures do you use to come to that conclusion? You are right that real estate has become more expensive over time in many places. A big part of the problem (in the US) is that new construction of housing is almost illegal. See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Missing_middle_housing https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Missing_middle_housing

altacc 5y ago

Throughout history a form of control has been to make people feel that they're better off than some other group of people, and so have more power, privilege & life is as good as it is likely to get. However it also comes with the implicit warning that they could lose that specialness if the boat was rocked. There is always somebody better off and with more power dictating that hierarchy to bother groups and the only way to address that imbalance is by collaboration and for employees, unionisation is a way to do that. Tech workers are very much in that hierarchy and think that they're better off than most other people, so don't need a union. As a unionised, European tech worker it is quite likely that I have far more protections from my employer's whims than those in largely non-unionised countries (automatic minimum pay rises, job security, holidays, working hours, etc...) and I very much prefer it this way.