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Doctorow's writings are good, and this book summary is excellent. One of his recommendations is unlikely to go far: tech worker unions. Most comments on HN und

Doctorow's writings are good, and this book summary is excellent. One of his recommendations is unlikely to go far: tech worker unions. Most comments on HN underscore the extent to which techies have bought into capitalist propaganda, which we slavishly repeat. We dream of becoming the next multimillionaire, but it's far more likely we'll get laid off at some point(s) in our career by the enshittification machine. A worker's union isn't communism, it represents the workers who build the systems. Germany, a social democracy, provides for a worker's representative on company boards. This isn't communism! BTW, it's the reviewer who suggested abolishing companies, not Doctorow. Now that is communism. What we do need is some regulation of companies that have become information utilities. Same as regulations for the water company or the power company.

culopatin 1y ago
The thing with unions is that it’s very easy they end up turned into some sort of extortion mafia and end up making output shit and the work quality mediocre. In many cases they end up run by a tight circle that never worked in the field they represent.
- danaris 1y ago
  Then they need to be expanded, so that their membership is broad enough and cares enough to vote out the people who are running them poorly.
thatguymike 1y ago
Getting laid off in our careers is indeed likely, but part of the deal is that it’s not mutually exclusive to becoming a multimillionaire. We work cushy jobs for high pay, with the possibility of absurd payouts, accepting that the deal we get from the industry is good enough to not rock the boat too hard by unionizing. There has been enough excess value to go around. I think it’s not a coincidence that most of the unionization pushes i hear about are in the Games industry: it’s superficially similar to the software industry but workers are treated much worse for much smaller payouts. If software industry keeps heading in that direction, maybe unions are coming. But the idea of unionizing up until now has been mostly laughable, and proponents haven’t made themselves look informed or relatable by pushing it.

culopatin 1y ago

The thing with unions is that it’s very easy they end up turned into some sort of extortion mafia and end up making output shit and the work quality mediocre. In many cases they end up run by a tight circle that never worked in the field they represent.

danaris 1y ago
Then they need to be expanded, so that their membership is broad enough and cares enough to vote out the people who are running them poorly.

thatguymike 1y ago

Getting laid off in our careers is indeed likely, but part of the deal is that it’s not mutually exclusive to becoming a multimillionaire. We work cushy jobs for high pay, with the possibility of absurd payouts, accepting that the deal we get from the industry is good enough to not rock the boat too hard by unionizing. There has been enough excess value to go around. I think it’s not a coincidence that most of the unionization pushes i hear about are in the Games industry: it’s superficially similar to the software industry but workers are treated much worse for much smaller payouts. If software industry keeps heading in that direction, maybe unions are coming. But the idea of unionizing up until now has been mostly laughable, and proponents haven’t made themselves look informed or relatable by pushing it.