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Amazon, on the engineering side, is rough for high-end software engineers, but let's be very real: it pays better than the vast majority of careers available in

Amazon, on the engineering side, is rough for high-end software engineers, but let's be very real: it pays better than the vast majority of careers available in America, even right out of college, and while it's stressful so is being a teacher or working in the food industry, and those jobs pay peanuts compared to an Amazon SWE. It is fortunate to get a job there. It may be even more fortunate to get a job at another high-end software company but that doesn't change the fact that a job at Amazon is life changing money for most people. To pre-empt hyperbolic responses: I live in Seattle. I personally know plenty of people who have worked at Amazon. I know plenty of local teachers. The teachers work as many hours for a tenth the pay and burn out just as fast.

president_zippy 1y ago
You might be right about the hours the teachers work, but they're not doing it to avoid being fired. It is entirely self-imposed stress. Teachers have unions and tenure. I'll help people, but I won't martyr myself in a hospital, let alone a frickin' tech company. I don't consider 60 hour work weeks a privilege to be coveted, especially if I'm capturing less than 1% of the value I produce. I'm sorry man, but white collar serfdom is still serfdom. If you're really going to keep begging this hard to be a serf on someone else's fiefdom, I'll tell you what: you can keep overworking yourself as serf on fiefdoms in which I might own shares, and increase the value of my portfolio for me, so I can draw even more passive income every month. I formally withdraw my protest to your "Protestant" work ethic. I'm not trying to be an asshole, but I'm just hoping you take what I'm saying burns into your subconscious and something in you changes: that work into which you've placed so much of your self-esteem is just funding other peoples' passive income to either not work or live ostentatiously. If that's a great privilege to you, God bless you. I'm sure my wife would love it if I just retired- please make it happen, she would love me even more for it. EDIT: P.S. Your "privilege" of working for Jeff Bezos' portfolio sounds a lot like a biblical curse. Specifically, 1 Samuel 8:10-18 and Psalm 105:44. "He gave them the lands of the nations, that they might inherit the fruit of others’ labor"
- Arainach 1y ago
  >You might be right about the hours the teachers work, but they're not doing it to avoid being fired. It is entirely self-imposed stress. Teachers have unions and tenure. No, and no. Your perception of modern labor markets is dated and disconnected from reality. Schools are constantly facing budget cuts and a huge chunk of teachers aren't even full time (instead getting things like a 60% time position - less pay, no security, but enough hours that good luck working a second job). Those that get full time positions still face the elimination of their positions.
  - president_zippy 1y ago
    I guess I just assumed teachers have the same protections in deep blue Washington state that they have in Illinois and Minnesota. If I'm wrong, I'm wrong. However, there's a fix for that: move to a state where the job prospects are better. That sounds like "let them eat cake", except that moving to another state as an American citizen is a lot easier than what of people went through fleeing the Sicilian Mafia or the Irish Potato Famine, let alone WW2 European front or the fall of Saigon.
    - sethammons 1y ago
      I was a teacher in blue California for four years. You don't know what you are talking about.
      - president_zippy 1y ago
        Where in all of this discussion did I say anything about California?
        Arainach 1y ago
        >assumed teachers have the same protections in deep blue Washington state California is just as "blue" as Washington. >move to a state where the job prospects are better. That sounds like "let them eat cake", except that moving to another state as an American citizen is a lot easier than what of people went through fleeing the Sicilian Mafia or the Irish Potato Famine, let alone WW2 European front or the fall of Saigon. There is no such state. Nearly every state is in budget crisis and cutting school funds, and a certain vocal segment of them are actively attacking the entire concept of education, banning books, prosecuting teachers who provide support to their students or talk about how the world works, and more.

president_zippy 1y ago

You might be right about the hours the teachers work, but they're not doing it to avoid being fired. It is entirely self-imposed stress. Teachers have unions and tenure. I'll help people, but I won't martyr myself in a hospital, let alone a frickin' tech company. I don't consider 60 hour work weeks a privilege to be coveted, especially if I'm capturing less than 1% of the value I produce. I'm sorry man, but white collar serfdom is still serfdom. If you're really going to keep begging this hard to be a serf on someone else's fiefdom, I'll tell you what: you can keep overworking yourself as serf on fiefdoms in which I might own shares, and increase the value of my portfolio for me, so I can draw even more passive income every month. I formally withdraw my protest to your "Protestant" work ethic. I'm not trying to be an asshole, but I'm just hoping you take what I'm saying burns into your subconscious and something in you changes: that work into which you've placed so much of your self-esteem is just funding other peoples' passive income to either not work or live ostentatiously. If that's a great privilege to you, God bless you. I'm sure my wife would love it if I just retired- please make it happen, she would love me even more for it. EDIT: P.S. Your "privilege" of working for Jeff Bezos' portfolio sounds a lot like a biblical curse. Specifically, 1 Samuel 8:10-18 and Psalm 105:44. "He gave them the lands of the nations, that they might inherit the fruit of others’ labor"

Arainach 1y ago
>You might be right about the hours the teachers work, but they're not doing it to avoid being fired. It is entirely self-imposed stress. Teachers have unions and tenure. No, and no. Your perception of modern labor markets is dated and disconnected from reality. Schools are constantly facing budget cuts and a huge chunk of teachers aren't even full time (instead getting things like a 60% time position - less pay, no security, but enough hours that good luck working a second job). Those that get full time positions still face the elimination of their positions.
- president_zippy 1y ago
  I guess I just assumed teachers have the same protections in deep blue Washington state that they have in Illinois and Minnesota. If I'm wrong, I'm wrong. However, there's a fix for that: move to a state where the job prospects are better. That sounds like "let them eat cake", except that moving to another state as an American citizen is a lot easier than what of people went through fleeing the Sicilian Mafia or the Irish Potato Famine, let alone WW2 European front or the fall of Saigon.
  - sethammons 1y ago
    I was a teacher in blue California for four years. You don't know what you are talking about.
    - president_zippy 1y ago
      Where in all of this discussion did I say anything about California?
      - Arainach 1y ago
        >assumed teachers have the same protections in deep blue Washington state California is just as "blue" as Washington. >move to a state where the job prospects are better. That sounds like "let them eat cake", except that moving to another state as an American citizen is a lot easier than what of people went through fleeing the Sicilian Mafia or the Irish Potato Famine, let alone WW2 European front or the fall of Saigon. There is no such state. Nearly every state is in budget crisis and cutting school funds, and a certain vocal segment of them are actively attacking the entire concept of education, banning books, prosecuting teachers who provide support to their students or talk about how the world works, and more.