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There are five courses of action: ⚫ Be ownership. Start your own company. You'll rapidly find that the same numerical collusion advantages which apply to large employers are even more applicable to VC and funders, and that the game they play is for control. Even Jobs got screwed out of his own company. ⚫ Opt out of the game. Welcome to the world of post-growth economics and the impact that has for wages everywhere. ⚫ Move to where hiring is growing. I've quoted Smith above on collusion. He also has advice for where to find rising wages: "It is not the actual greatness of national wealth, but its continual increase, which occasions a rise in the wages of labour. It is not, accordingly, in the richest countries, but in the most thriving, or in those which are growing rich the fastest, that the wages of labour are highest." (Wealth of Nations, Book I, Chapter VII, http://www.gutenberg.org/files/3300/3300-h/3300-h.htm#link2H...) So, if you can emigrate somewhere with rising employment, you'll do better. The problem of course is the same as for the 3rd option: growth is flattening everywhere. ⚫ Unionize. Good luck with that, as Silicon Valley has been hugely resistant to union organization, in no small part due to the contrary-to-their-own interests brainwashing of Libertarian indoctrination. Even if you don't believe it, I can all but guarantee that the suggestion of forming a union will bring the denouncers out of the woodwork. If you do want to proceed, find ways of removing them from the conversation. There are publications from civil rights, unionization, and nonviolent revolutionary movements detailing derailing tactics and how to respond to them. The Albert Einstein Institution's book list is a good start: http://www.aeinstein.org/english/ . In particular, From Dictatorship to Democracy. Studying how opposition movements are disrupted is also helpful. For these, go to the source. FBI's COINTELPRO and HOODWINK documents (the YELLCASING is their thing), the Lewis Powell memo: http://reclaimdemocracy.org/powell_memo_lewis/ http://billmoyers.com/content/the-powell-memo-a-call-to-arms... ⚫ Suck it up and accept it. You'll be making better bank than most salaried workers, at least while you're working. The rare superstar may do significantly better. Odds are good you'll work in startup serfdom for 10-20 years, then find yourself on the aged side of hip, or whatever the cool kids are calling it then. Assuming there is a Silicon Valley in another 10-20 years. There are a few bigger epochal changes on the horizon. At least having read this you'll begin to understand where you stand and how the game works. |