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I hope the perception leans more towards 'uber rich tech execs conspired to pay their employees less' and not 'some of the best paid employees complain about ho

I hope the perception leans more towards 'uber rich tech execs conspired to pay their employees less' and not 'some of the best paid employees complain about how little they make'.

mcfunley 12y ago
There are plenty of reasons to be angry, why pick just one?
Eduardo3rd 12y ago
I think that's pretty unlikely. The tech industry has done a poor job of endearing itself to the rest of the economy over the past few years. My non-tech friends have been through the struggle of finding jobs in general throughout the recession. Few of them are going to shed a tear for engineers making less than fair market wages who already pull down six figures in their early twenties. Someone I know in SF posted a picture today of their new Audi with a caption about how they were finally a real adult now that they owned one. I think that's pretty disconnected from reality, and sadly I think it is somewhat typical of the mindset that a lot of engineers have in this industry.
- colechristensen 12y ago
  Reality isn't real only if you're poor (and many of the poor in America live like kings compared to the poor in other parts of the world or in the recent past). There are a large number of fuzzy groups of people in the world whom have little concept of how it is to live in any group significantly distant from their own.
- fleitz 12y ago
  Yep, it's poverty morality, as soon as you make 50 cents an hour more than the next guy you're rich, and have no right to complain about anything. Even when I was making $15 an hour answering phones, I'd hear no end about how the bus drivers on strike shouldn't get paid $20 an hour. Yet no one wanted to quit their job and become a bus driver.
smtddr 12y ago
I deleted the comment you've replied to because of the rapid downvotes... but screw it... I'm putting it back here. Who needs karma anyway... To the rest of the public, we probably look like complaining oil or Walmart execs. While the rest of the general public is dealing with insane commutes and thankless/soul-crushing jobs, we got things like "The Social Network" movie, San Francisco gentrification issues, fancy catered parties and Google Glass. I can't even explain this to the rest of my family. They're like "Why are the people in your field complaining? Aren't they partying like it's 1999?" And seriously, my life is basically a dream compared to the rest of my family and past classmates not in tech. I make more money than I ever thought possible, I have no commute because BART is so close, I can WorkFromHome just about anytime I want, I work in San Franciso with lost of food options and my job is something I'd be doing on my free time anyway. I have the flexibility to be at my standing-desk on HN debating with people online while drinking my fancy glass bottle VOSS water from Norway. And the icing on the cake is probably the minimum 2 recruiter LinkedIn emails I get a week offering even more money. Also, I never negotiate salary. I just take the first offer so I assume I'm in the lower-range compared to most of HN. Seriously, go try and explain this to the average lower/middle-class American outside of tech. This must look ridiculous. I'm right in the heart of this tech scene and I'm not even convinced we should be complaining.
- cscurmudgeon 12y ago
  To the most of the world, even being poor in the US is a dream. They would never understand you parents complaining about tech people complaining.
  - oblio 12y ago
    Based on your account name I find it hard to take your comment seriously, but: The 20s called. They want their cliches back. Most of the world is richer than US poor people these days. Of course, even if "most" are, there's still 1 billion people barely making enough for food, I'll grant you that.
    - cscurmudgeon 12y ago

I hope the perception leans more towards 'uber rich tech execs conspired to pay their employees less' and not 'some of the best paid employees complain about how little they make'.

mcfunley 12y ago

There are plenty of reasons to be angry, why pick just one?

Eduardo3rd 12y ago

I think that's pretty unlikely. The tech industry has done a poor job of endearing itself to the rest of the economy over the past few years. My non-tech friends have been through the struggle of finding jobs in general throughout the recession. Few of them are going to shed a tear for engineers making less than fair market wages who already pull down six figures in their early twenties. Someone I know in SF posted a picture today of their new Audi with a caption about how they were finally a real adult now that they owned one. I think that's pretty disconnected from reality, and sadly I think it is somewhat typical of the mindset that a lot of engineers have in this industry.

colechristensen 12y ago
Reality isn't real only if you're poor (and many of the poor in America live like kings compared to the poor in other parts of the world or in the recent past). There are a large number of fuzzy groups of people in the world whom have little concept of how it is to live in any group significantly distant from their own.
fleitz 12y ago
Yep, it's poverty morality, as soon as you make 50 cents an hour more than the next guy you're rich, and have no right to complain about anything. Even when I was making $15 an hour answering phones, I'd hear no end about how the bus drivers on strike shouldn't get paid $20 an hour. Yet no one wanted to quit their job and become a bus driver.

smtddr 12y ago

I deleted the comment you've replied to because of the rapid downvotes... but screw it... I'm putting it back here. Who needs karma anyway... To the rest of the public, we probably look like complaining oil or Walmart execs. While the rest of the general public is dealing with insane commutes and thankless/soul-crushing jobs, we got things like "The Social Network" movie, San Francisco gentrification issues, fancy catered parties and Google Glass. I can't even explain this to the rest of my family. They're like "Why are the people in your field complaining? Aren't they partying like it's 1999?" And seriously, my life is basically a dream compared to the rest of my family and past classmates not in tech. I make more money than I ever thought possible, I have no commute because BART is so close, I can WorkFromHome just about anytime I want, I work in San Franciso with lost of food options and my job is something I'd be doing on my free time anyway. I have the flexibility to be at my standing-desk on HN debating with people online while drinking my fancy glass bottle VOSS water from Norway. And the icing on the cake is probably the minimum 2 recruiter LinkedIn emails I get a week offering even more money. Also, I never negotiate salary. I just take the first offer so I assume I'm in the lower-range compared to most of HN. Seriously, go try and explain this to the average lower/middle-class American outside of tech. This must look ridiculous. I'm right in the heart of this tech scene and I'm not even convinced we should be complaining.

cscurmudgeon 12y ago
To the most of the world, even being poor in the US is a dream. They would never understand you parents complaining about tech people complaining.
- oblio 12y ago
  Based on your account name I find it hard to take your comment seriously, but: The 20s called. They want their cliches back. Most of the world is richer than US poor people these days. Of course, even if "most" are, there's still 1 billion people barely making enough for food, I'll grant you that.
  - cscurmudgeon 12y ago