I'd counter that your comment reveals disdain for people who you wrongly assume can't improve their skills or economic outlook.
I could make a long list of people I know who taught themselves new skills and leveled up to new jobs - code or otherwise - without the need for "empathy" from someone who was certain they were less "privileged" and therefore should be pitied.
I read that remark as, "in the grand scheme of things, we can't all have it good." - not as anything marked with disdain.
As for my own opinion? I don't think there's a stone software engineers are cut from, but I don't think most people could be effective at working on technology without dramatic improvements in a few different key areas between analytical (data driven) thinking and layered abstractions.
It's not that these things can't be learned - I certainly didn't learn these from my blue collar parents. It's that it takes significant investment of time that many adults can't dedicate.
I view us (coders) as plumbers or car mechanics; and I'm certainly not a good plumber, and only a very primitive mechanic. One will pay me $200/hr for my time fixing software and I'll pay them $200/hr back to fix my car or my plumbing.
Anyone can learn a trade if they take the time to study and become proficient. I don't think it requires "privilege". Maybe twenty years ago you grew up too poor to have a computer in the house, but you certainly had a car or a toilet. And so some people learned to be proficient at fixing things, and other people ...? Not so much. But that's okay, because as you said, not everyone can be effective at working on technology.
However, that doesn't mean that the world needs to bend over backwards for people who can't get proficient at something.
You might have way too high an idea of the place software engineers occupy in the economic and social hierarchy. We're trash compared to the money people.
I just choose not to be angry about it, so I hope the guy serving me a burger chooses not to be angry about my job placement too; I'm more than happy to tutor him.
Any individual can get a better job. But not every individual. There aren't enough good jobs, and society would collapse if all the retail workers, bin men, teachers, nurses, etc suddenly became software engineers.
Okay, but you're disregarding both new hires and seniority. I know a garbage man who's a poet and makes $100k a year, with health care and a pension. Other people who have that job for a year or two might decide to move into a different field. There are more people being born all the time. They start somewhere and move on. I served when I was in my 20s. Now I'm served by people in their 20s. So?
Others already replied in useful ways that reflect my thoughts here.
I know some people can and will make it, but it’s definitely not for everyone or even the majority of them, especially here in southern Europe. Think mums with kids doing 9 to 6, men in their 50s doing shitty jobs in shitty companies, young professionals living with their parents because they can’t afford to pay rent. Yes, they could go abroad and reinvent themselves, making a substantial improvement to their quality of life, etc. But in the meantime I like that our governments take steps to regulate overworking and crazy demands for those who don’t give a shit about their work beyond getting their salary and moving on with their life. I empathise and understand their context, even if I’m in a quite different situation.
That’s empathy, not pitying others because they are less privileged than me. Maybe they are even happier than I am, who am I to judge?
I'd counter that your comment reveals disdain for people who you wrongly assume can't improve their skills or economic outlook.
I could make a long list of people I know who taught themselves new skills and leveled up to new jobs - code or otherwise - without the need for "empathy" from someone who was certain they were less "privileged" and therefore should be pitied.