[bilbo0s]

Let's be honest, there's also a lot of money involved.

Who wants to trade their nice, comfortable, upper middle class lifestyle, in favor of joining the lines with the middle class or maybe even the poor depending on what happens? Jobs that provide an that sort of lifestyle are not as plentiful as people believe. I'm really uncertain whether or not people are truly aware of how much a Google engineer can make? Contrast a family's lifestyle in the presence of that sort of salary, against the very real fact that being middle class or poor these days entails a lot of uncertainty. At least in the US.

I'm just saying that there's a lot at play here, and it takes a certain kind of person to follow his/her convictions no matter the cost. It's definitely a case where it's easy to be critical, and at the same time a bit tough to empathize. But I think empathy leads to a better understanding of some of the important human dimensions of these issues.

[echelon]

You don't have to work for such a company. There are plenty of employers that don't snoop or track. It isn't a part of their business model.

[JohnFen]

What you're saying here is really "everybody has a price". That's never a flattering observation.

[phkahler]

But it's almost always true.

[paulryanrogers]

With education and life experience our 'prices' can change for the better. And with collective action we can make the world better than it was before us. Consider that simply being an informed, relatively independent voter is a collective action too.

[JohnFen]

Perhaps, but only if you count nonmonetary things as part of the definition of "price".

However, that doesn't make it ethically supportable.