Just a moment...
doctorow.medium.com

https://archive.ph/hMZPi

Remember when tech workers dreamed of working for a big company for a few years, before striking out on their own to start their own company that would knock that tech giant over?

Then that dream shrank to: work for a giant for a few years, quit, do a fake startup, get acqui-hired by your old employer, as a complicated way of getting a bonus and a promotion.

Then the dream shrank further: work for a tech giant for your whole life, get free kombucha and massages on Wednesdays.

And now, the dream is over. All that’s left is: work for a tech giant until they fire your ass, like those 12,000 Googlers who got fired six months after a stock buyback that would have paid their salaries for the next 27 years.

We deserve better than this. We can get it.

  • huginn@feddit.itEnglish
    243·
    1 year ago

    I had spent 6 years fastidiously saving to have 20k in investments when I got hired by Google.

    I was laid off in the wave 9 months later.

    So no: I didn’t (and don’t) have enough money to just start my own company.

    It’s workers of the world unite not workers of the world only allow people who match your purity test. If you’re not with us, you’re part of the problem.

    • SCB@lemmy.worldEnglish
      120·
      1 year ago

      I spent 6 years saving $20,000 in investments

      He said without a trace of irony.

          • theparadox@lemmy.worldEnglish
            101·
            1 year ago

            Jesus Christ, I guess the capitalists are still winning. Keep us fighting amongst ourselves so we never unite. What, exactly, would convince you to have solidarity with a person able to save 3k a year? To quit and work for less? To donate all non-living expenses to charity until their QOL is on par with yours?

            Seriously though, there is no reason why labor at all levels can’t work together to improve the system and demand better treatment across the board.

            • SCB@lemmy.worldEnglish
              18·
              1 year ago

              I hope the capitalists will always be winning. Capitalism is awesome.

              Also the person you’re talking about saved that money and invested it, making them a capitalist.

              Class solidarity is nonsense.

              until their QOL is on par with yours

              I make a lot of money and live in a moderate COL area. It’s almost certain my QOL is higher than theirs.

              Fun fact: almost no one has the money to just start a business from scratch. That’s why investors exist. Banks give out business loans all the time. That’s capitalism, and that’s why it’s awesome.

              • theparadox@lemmy.worldEnglish
                3·
                1 year ago

                Apologies, I didn’t realize that your goal was to promote capitalism and defeat class solidarity.

                • SCB@lemmy.worldEnglish
                  11·
                  1 year ago

                  I love that you googled this without knowing I’ve literally started my own business.

                  That doesn’t change the fact that the overwhelming majority of businesses involve both startup costs and the reality that, on average, businesses do not turn a profit for 2-3 years.

                  Just really stellar posting my dude. Really brings the “pull weeds for people” home.

          • Stumblinbear@pawb.socialEnglish
            11·
            1 year ago

            You know it’s not terribly difficult to save a couple hundred a month so long as you’re not making minimum wage and budget for it

      • huginn@feddit.itEnglish
        41·
        1 year ago

        6 years saving 20k is legitimately the “skip lattes and cancel Netflix” levels of saving.

        It’s $270 a month extra.

        Only saving $270 a month in NYC means 1 month of layoffs wipes out 6 months of saving in rent alone.

        If you don’t see the violence inherent in that system then you’re fucking blind.