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In medieval times what you produced had intrinsic value. If you work in a corporation it's impossible to isolate the value you are creating from the company it
by dasil003 13y ago
In medieval times what you produced had intrinsic value. If you work in a corporation it's impossible to isolate the value you are creating from the company itself. Maybe they take 80% of your value, or maybe you are extracting a paycheck and providing negative value. In any case though, I find it disingenuous to seriously compare this to being essentially enslaved by a feudal lord.
- rayiner 13y agoCompanies are built on employees creating more value than they are paid. That's obvious. The fact that its harder to measure who produces how much doesn't change the dynamic, it just means you have to do the analysis statistically instead of individually.
- nostrademons 13y agoThe other thing companies are built on is employees being able to create more value within the company than outside of it. Every single employee has the option of quitting and founding their own business. Several do. Many take a pay cut to exercise this right.
- rayiner 13y agoRight, but that was true of feudal structures too.
- dasil003 13y agoI'm not sure if you're trying a reductio ad absurdum or what, but your point is lost on me because the comparison is foolish on its face.
- adamgravitis 13y agoThis is a crucially important point. The question becomes: to what extent does the accumulation of capital, expertise, equipment in a corporation render a software engineer able to produce more value than working on their own, or in a partnership, or other arrangement? I would imagine this varies dramatically by industry. I know several of the biosciences, for example, do require a lot of specialized people, equipment and tons of cash... Many of the areas we're seeing disrupted by startups are areas where you'd hit diminishing returns (from, say, more equipment / capital) rather quickly.