4 ms·

Why are there so many socialist tendencies on hacker news. Engineers are among the most privileged professionals on Earth. It’s great companies look to reduce c

by ITB 3y ago

Why are there so many socialist tendencies on hacker news. Engineers are among the most privileged professionals on Earth. It’s great companies look to reduce costs. Lower cost of goods and services help everyone. Countries that meddle with the economy to keep incomes high end up having lower quality of life.

all_factz 3y ago
Actually, C-level execs are among the most privileged professionals on Earth. Once their salaries take a hit, we can talk about mine getting cut as well. Till then, enjoy being a shill!
doublespanner 3y ago
It doesn't matter if goods are cheaper if other parts of the human experience are degraded. It's not as simple as companies lowering costs, migration also creates conditions that concentrate wealth and creates unpleasant rapid growth. From what I have personally seen, there is a general feeling that the social costs of migration are not worth it. Sure, you can afford highly complex consumer goods, but you have are now just another cog in the globaly homogeneous exploitation machine.
smaudet 3y ago
"Lower cost of goods and services help everyone." That's nice, but the reason there are so many "socialist" tendencies is there are so many authoritarian, nigh even fascist tendencies emerging. Companies are and have been increasing the cost of those goods and services, regardless of what inflation has been doing, _and not decreasing the prices afterwards_. Lower cost of goods and services is a "conservative" fever dream - utter buck nonsense. "Countries that meddle with the economy to keep incomes high end up having lower quality of life." A corrupt person in a boardroom is the same as a corrupt person in political power - nobody benefits. Socialism at least demands those in positions of otherwise un-earned power are held accountable.
thumbsup-_- 3y ago
> Engineers are among the most privileged professionals on Earth. It’s great companies look to reduce costs. Lower cost of goods and services help everyone. Countries that meddle with the economy to keep incomes high end up having lower quality of life. No company cares about people and no country really cares about foreign nationals (especially non-refugees). It's all demand and supply. When workforce demand is high and supply is low, wages go high. They don't go high because you have a degree but because there are less people with a degree. Countries want these people because employers want them. If there are more people, wages could be lower but it will also attract more employers and hence more jobs for everyone possibly. There is no real answer whether this is helpful for an economy or not. It's a chicken and egg problem. Without talent there will be less companies interested in a geo area and without enough jobs there will be less talent attracted. So, countries are trying to solve one part of the problem (talent) with regulation.
hgs3 3y ago
The issue with guest workers is they undercut supply and demand: if a company can't find workers (low supply) and they need them (high demand) then they're supposed to raise wages to compete for them. Artificially increasing the supply of workers suppresses wages.
- deleted 3y ago
  [deleted]
lannisterstark 3y ago
"Engineers don't deserve worker rights because they have it better than x people" is a novel take that I've only seen in certain circles. Good job I guess.
timwaagh 3y ago
Except we're not. Engineers that is. According to the Canadian engineer's association or whatever.
- amrocha 3y ago
  Have you worked in industry at all? Whatever we do, it's definitely not engineering
  - midoridensha 3y ago
    I disagree, it really depends on where you work and exactly what kind of work you're doing. Writing avionics software, for instance, I would definitely consider "engineering". And that's a bit of an extreme case; there's lots of other software out there with a lot of rigor. But yes, a LOT of software these days is just slapped together with processes that don't resemble any kind of true engineering practice at all. However, let's not forget that even industries with "real engineering" are frequently full of bad or nonexistent engineering practices: just look OceanGate, or the Boeing 737MAX.
    - amrocha 3y ago
      Yeah, that's very true, there's definitely parts of the industry (usually those related to traditional engineering) that take a more rigorous approach to software. I'd say it's still a very small section though, and the vast majority of "software engineers" are really just programmers. Myself included.

by ITB 3y ago

all_factz 3y ago

Actually, C-level execs are among the most privileged professionals on Earth. Once their salaries take a hit, we can talk about mine getting cut as well. Till then, enjoy being a shill!

doublespanner 3y ago

It doesn't matter if goods are cheaper if other parts of the human experience are degraded. It's not as simple as companies lowering costs, migration also creates conditions that concentrate wealth and creates unpleasant rapid growth. From what I have personally seen, there is a general feeling that the social costs of migration are not worth it. Sure, you can afford highly complex consumer goods, but you have are now just another cog in the globaly homogeneous exploitation machine.

smaudet 3y ago

"Lower cost of goods and services help everyone." That's nice, but the reason there are so many "socialist" tendencies is there are so many authoritarian, nigh even fascist tendencies emerging. Companies are and have been increasing the cost of those goods and services, regardless of what inflation has been doing, _and not decreasing the prices afterwards_. Lower cost of goods and services is a "conservative" fever dream - utter buck nonsense. "Countries that meddle with the economy to keep incomes high end up having lower quality of life." A corrupt person in a boardroom is the same as a corrupt person in political power - nobody benefits. Socialism at least demands those in positions of otherwise un-earned power are held accountable.

thumbsup-_- 3y ago

> Engineers are among the most privileged professionals on Earth. It’s great companies look to reduce costs. Lower cost of goods and services help everyone. Countries that meddle with the economy to keep incomes high end up having lower quality of life. No company cares about people and no country really cares about foreign nationals (especially non-refugees). It's all demand and supply. When workforce demand is high and supply is low, wages go high. They don't go high because you have a degree but because there are less people with a degree. Countries want these people because employers want them. If there are more people, wages could be lower but it will also attract more employers and hence more jobs for everyone possibly. There is no real answer whether this is helpful for an economy or not. It's a chicken and egg problem. Without talent there will be less companies interested in a geo area and without enough jobs there will be less talent attracted. So, countries are trying to solve one part of the problem (talent) with regulation.

hgs3 3y ago

The issue with guest workers is they undercut supply and demand: if a company can't find workers (low supply) and they need them (high demand) then they're supposed to raise wages to compete for them. Artificially increasing the supply of workers suppresses wages.

deleted 3y ago
[deleted]

lannisterstark 3y ago

"Engineers don't deserve worker rights because they have it better than x people" is a novel take that I've only seen in certain circles. Good job I guess.

timwaagh 3y ago

Except we're not. Engineers that is. According to the Canadian engineer's association or whatever.

amrocha 3y ago
Have you worked in industry at all? Whatever we do, it's definitely not engineering
- midoridensha 3y ago
  I disagree, it really depends on where you work and exactly what kind of work you're doing. Writing avionics software, for instance, I would definitely consider "engineering". And that's a bit of an extreme case; there's lots of other software out there with a lot of rigor. But yes, a LOT of software these days is just slapped together with processes that don't resemble any kind of true engineering practice at all. However, let's not forget that even industries with "real engineering" are frequently full of bad or nonexistent engineering practices: just look OceanGate, or the Boeing 737MAX.
  - amrocha 3y ago
    Yeah, that's very true, there's definitely parts of the industry (usually those related to traditional engineering) that take a more rigorous approach to software. I'd say it's still a very small section though, and the vast majority of "software engineers" are really just programmers. Myself included.