4 ms·

But what if you have a life. And dependents. And bills to pay. As much as I would like to agree with you, people have different value systems. And money talks.

• serf 11y ago
  > So quitting isn't always an option, even though it is the most ethical. If you think quitting a dangerous project (to be replaced by another dime-a-dozen engineer by a large corporation which employs thousands) is the ethically correct choice, your moral compass is broken. We're talking about a device sold in the millions of units that is capable of dealing great bodily and structural harm to us and our world around us. Whistle blowing (preferably before real world harm) is the only ethical choice for someone that is made aware of such a situation.
• hliyan 11y ago
  Then you probably should not be taking on work that human lives depend on. Placing my bills over someone else's bills is a perfectly human reaction. But placing my bills over someone else's life -- a typical human should not feel this way.
  • nitrogen 11y ago
    This is a systemic problem though, not a problem with the ethics of the engineers. Systems that incentivize bad behavior are to blame.
• InclinedPlane 11y ago
  Unless you're living without luxuries then you are prioritizing your access to luxuries over the lives of others. That's unconscionable, even if you word it as "bills to pay and mouths to feed". If you're working as an engineer for Toyota's firmware it's unlikely that you won't be able to find sufficiently well paying work to keep the kids in clothes and food and keep a roof over your head.