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It's incredible to see with cases like this how extremely absurd the relationship of capital and labor is. If I was someone aspiring to be a researcher, I'd mo

It's incredible to see with cases like this how extremely absurd the relationship of capital and labor is. If I was someone aspiring to be a researcher, I'd most definitely give up due to stories like this. The person created probably close to trillions of value to humanity (his LEDs spawned multiple new industries), yet he was compensated less than what I make with web development. Meanwhile the CEO and other businesses profited from his research for one reason only: they already had capital. Call me crazy but smart people that want to do research should do it and get well compensated for it, even if they don't invent something as pivotal as this. But because of stories like this, many smart people will never even consider a career as a researcher because the majority would be rewarded with poverty. Meanwhile if you release a new shitcoin at the right time, or you're posting near naked pictures on Instagram, you get rewarded handsomely. What a fucked up society we created for ourselves.

lucianbr 3y ago
> The person created probably close to trillions of value to humanity (his LEDs spawned multiple new industries), yet he was compensated less than what I make with web development. While decrying unfairness towards a single researcher, you seem to ignore the contribution of who knows how many people comprising "multiple new industries". I mean, the people working in those industries also contributed to those trillions, no? It definitely seems unfair to Nakamura. Just pointing out it's really hard to be fair to everyone, as your comment inadvertently proves. At least he got a Nobel prize, which means both recognition and money.
dang 3y ago
Could you please stop using HN for ideological battle? Your account has been doing this a lot lately, and when an account is primarily doing that, this is a line at which we ban the account. Past explanations: https://hn.algolia.com/?sort=byDate&dateRange=all&type=comment&storyText=false&prefix=false&page=0&query=primarily%20test%20by:dang https://hn.algolia.com/?sort=byDate&dateRange=all&type=comme... We detached this subthread from https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=39314755 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=39314755.
- Draiken 3y ago
  I don't understand. This is literally part of what the video talks about: how he got fired after giving them billions. How is this an ideological battle? It's what was described in the video. I don't disagree that I talk about capitalism on some threads that aren't specifically mentioning it, but in this case it's 100% part of the content. I can only hope that the same treatment happens for accounts with the opposite view.
  - dang 3y ago
    I believe you that there was a point of contact with the article but the problem is that your comment went on a generic ideological tangent from it, straight into regular flamewar territory, which is what we're trying to avoid. The more important point, though, is the pattern of posting like this. An isolated case isn't a problem but if it becomes a pattern, that's different; that's not the intended use of this site. For sure accounts with the opposite view get the same treatment—as long as we see them. (We don't read everything that gets posted—there's far too much of it.)
    - pxmpxm 3y ago
      People see what they wanna see, especially if their hobby is to promote empirically-failed worldviews. EG Moonshot research grant of $3 million / 15% of company's revenue is somehow capital exploiting labor, or whatever such superficial Das Kapital take, and no cognitive dissonance that inventions of this sort somehow didn't materialize in DDR or SSSR.
ThrowawayTestr 3y ago
Without that corporation behind him there's no way he would have been able to go to America for a year, buy a brand new deposition machine and then spend more years working on it.
brigadier132 3y ago
Wow, I had the completely opposite interpretation. The only reason this thing got created was because one rich person bet $3 million dollars on this researcher. There would have been zero chance of this research ever getting funded outside of capitalism.
rrr_oh_man 3y ago
It’s always been like this. Professions that leverage passion pay peanuts.

lucianbr 3y ago

> The person created probably close to trillions of value to humanity (his LEDs spawned multiple new industries), yet he was compensated less than what I make with web development. While decrying unfairness towards a single researcher, you seem to ignore the contribution of who knows how many people comprising "multiple new industries". I mean, the people working in those industries also contributed to those trillions, no? It definitely seems unfair to Nakamura. Just pointing out it's really hard to be fair to everyone, as your comment inadvertently proves. At least he got a Nobel prize, which means both recognition and money.

dang 3y ago

Could you please stop using HN for ideological battle? Your account has been doing this a lot lately, and when an account is primarily doing that, this is a line at which we ban the account. Past explanations: https://hn.algolia.com/?sort=byDate&dateRange=all&type=comment&storyText=false&prefix=false&page=0&query=primarily%20test%20by:dang https://hn.algolia.com/?sort=byDate&dateRange=all&type=comme... We detached this subthread from https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=39314755 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=39314755.

Draiken 3y ago
I don't understand. This is literally part of what the video talks about: how he got fired after giving them billions. How is this an ideological battle? It's what was described in the video. I don't disagree that I talk about capitalism on some threads that aren't specifically mentioning it, but in this case it's 100% part of the content. I can only hope that the same treatment happens for accounts with the opposite view.
- dang 3y ago
  I believe you that there was a point of contact with the article but the problem is that your comment went on a generic ideological tangent from it, straight into regular flamewar territory, which is what we're trying to avoid. The more important point, though, is the pattern of posting like this. An isolated case isn't a problem but if it becomes a pattern, that's different; that's not the intended use of this site. For sure accounts with the opposite view get the same treatment—as long as we see them. (We don't read everything that gets posted—there's far too much of it.)
  - pxmpxm 3y ago
    People see what they wanna see, especially if their hobby is to promote empirically-failed worldviews. EG Moonshot research grant of $3 million / 15% of company's revenue is somehow capital exploiting labor, or whatever such superficial Das Kapital take, and no cognitive dissonance that inventions of this sort somehow didn't materialize in DDR or SSSR.

ThrowawayTestr 3y ago

Without that corporation behind him there's no way he would have been able to go to America for a year, buy a brand new deposition machine and then spend more years working on it.

brigadier132 3y ago

Wow, I had the completely opposite interpretation. The only reason this thing got created was because one rich person bet $3 million dollars on this researcher. There would have been zero chance of this research ever getting funded outside of capitalism.

rrr_oh_man 3y ago

It’s always been like this. Professions that leverage passion pay peanuts.