[esotericn]

This is only surprising if you subscribe strictly to Sinclair's quote:

"It is difficult to get a man to understand something, when his salary depends on his not understanding it."

In reality, many many people work at jobs that they don't believe in. I personally haven't been able to hack it - I'm too stubborn to keep my mouth shut at appropriate times.

But ultimately, people can and will vote against "their own self interest". I vote for and fund environmental parties, despite that meaning I will personally lose out in a lot of ways, because it's the right thing to do.

That's part of what being a mature adult is. Recognizing that it's not all about your personal status and/or livelihood.

[xen2xen1]

The quote is highly contingent on one thing, that a man's salary is hard to replace. For most of humanity, it is. I'd wager if you work at a FANNG company you don't view it that way. Hard to get quite as much, maybe, but getting some making $250k to move to $200k a year is much, much different than someone moving from $45 a year to $30k a year, or $25k a year.

[esotericn]

I don't think you can generalize that much.

Personally none of that stuff mattered once I earned more than like, twice minimum wage. Nowhere near $200K.

Maybe that's a US thing, since you guys have so much tied up in work (health insurance etc).

I just think about having enough money to get by and help people around me, employment fits around that, not the other way around.

Sure, people who are actually earning biscuits as a wage are basically slaves. So it goes.

FWIW I don't work in adtech, I think it's bollocks and that everyone doing it should stop.

[pmoriarty]

"FWIW I don't work in adtech, I think it's bollocks and that everyone doing it should stop."

We should try to follow the money from adtech to those who are providing their life blood: companies buying advertising (which is nearly all companies).

As long as there is a demand for advertising, some people will work at adtech companies and others who service that need.

That's not to say that anyone who cares about privacy and is against manipulating others through advertising shouldn't be discouraged from working at adtech companies: they absolutely should. But the situation is similar to people working as part of drug cartels: they are meeting a demand, and no amount of finger wagging at them is going to change most of their minds.

For serious change to happen we have to find and address the root issues, which are really on the demand side rather than (ultimately) at the supply side.

[bcrosby95]

It goes pretty fast if you have kids in the US. We have twins and preschool alone is 700/month. You're also supposed to save like 500/month/kid for college - we have 3 so that's another 1500/month. Minivan to lug everyone around is 600/month.

[lonelappde]

Student loans can pay public school tuition, and anyway $100K plus a decade of investment interest is quite generous for public school, or private school with a scholarship (aka not a diploma mill) or ivy league school with financial aid for non-1%ers. And counting both daycare and saving college tuition is double-counting on an annalized basis. A minivan costs $600/month only if you buy new and trade in for another new car after 5 years. It's under $400 if you keep if for 7-10 years. Your $2800/month is only $1000-$2000 in the real world.

[ssivark]

I acknowledge your point. Then I wonder how much of that is that in a consumption oriented economy, there will always pop up services that will claim to provide enough marginal value to absorb all otherwise unspent cash. I acknowledge that it is especially hard to “skimp” on spending for the people one cares about — so one might feel guilty over any cash flow “not used”. It feels like a different version of hedonic adaptation, harder to make decisions in.

[perl4ever]

"Sure, people who are actually earning biscuits as a wage are basically slaves"

That is really an odd thing to say, even if people say it constantly as though it were obvious. What do you think the turnover is at minimum wage jobs? When you last went looking for one, how many different employers did you apply for? How far did you have to go to fill out applications for a bunch?

[perl4ever]

I think that's missing the point that should be obvious that people, including you, are simply misidentifying "self-interest" as if a person was an abstraction of an employee.

Every person has many interests. You have an interest in a salary, but you can still get a different job if necessary. You have an interest in staying out of prison that probably overrides doing what your boss says. You have an interest in your retirement savings, but you also have an interest in clean water. Nobody wants a company to poison the river in their town just to get 0.1% more of a dividend. Often people claim that others behave in this way, but it's absurd.

The peculiar mental state people seem to be in when talking politics is that they think they have an identity as a member of a class, rather than a human being that belongs to many classes at the same time.

I guess people talk about intersectionality, but I think that is a way to compartmentalize being human as a special thing special people do on special occasions.

[torben-friis]

>In reality, many many people work at jobs that they don't believe in. I personally haven't been able to hack it - I'm too stubborn to keep my mouth shut at appropriate times.

I'm in that situation, and I don't shut up either. I can't even count the amount of times I've said something along the lines of "this is not the way to do things, I can do it anyway since you pay me for it but I think it's a bad decision".

My company basically just humors me by hearing my complaint and doesn't make any change whatsoever. I get my salary anyway.

It's not the best situation to be in, but I'm sure it's not uncommon at all...

[BurningFrog]

> I vote for and fund environmental parties, despite that meaning I will personally lose out in a lot of ways, because it's the right thing to do.

The "catch" there is that since your vote won't actually change any election, this end up costing you nothing.

This is how economists analyze it. Not meant as a critique of you in any way.

[paulcole]

I’m assuming your health insurance covers physical therapy in the event you suffer an injury while patting yourself on the back?