The proletarianization of tech workers
doctorow.medium.com
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.
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The line dividing working class from owning class is not their monthly salary. It's their relationship to capital. Do they work for their living, or do they own for their living?
same reason why being an athlete sucks -- even though you're making insane sums, the guys at the top are making far more than that, without putting their body on the line in any way whatsoever, indefinitely [whereas most players retire in their 30s, if they're lucky enough to have that long of a career]
Google engineers have capital, both invested and cash. Enough to start their own company if they wanted. They simply decide that living as googler is easier and more convenient
As long as their livelihood is dependent on labouring, they're working class. You should show some solidarity, rather than trying to divide the working class.
Even bourgeois class works. Even aristocrats... CEOs work.
Working is not what identifies proletariat.
I show solidarity, I have former colleagues working at google. They have all my solidarity, but they are not proletariat.
An average google engineer have more capital than most CEOs around the world.
They need to unionize, but they are not proletariat. My company is unionized, and we are not proletariat. There are unionized people owning multiple porsches. They are not proletariat. They simply find easier to live out of a good salary instead of the stress of having their own company
I didn't say they didn't work. I said that their livelihood isn't dependant on labouring.
I don't know what you gain out of gatekeeping the working class. The whole invention of the middle class has been a tool by the owning class to separate the working class.
I gain nothing other than I prefer politics to be well directed. Unions for tech jobs is clearly needed, and it is fine. As said I work for an unionized company.
Problem of putting together real working class and people like me, or Google engineers that are even in a better position, it's bad to orient policies that helps the real working class. I want everybody to enjoy the privileges of mine and google engineers. Putting as in the same bucket as deliveroo drivers is not good for society. As society, we need to really works on the struggle of real proletariat. As tech workers we are far from the priority. Tech workers need to unionize, yes, but they are not proletariat.
You keep saying that it's bad, but you haven't actually said why. Just this nebulous idea that standing together is somehow bad. Worker's rights benefit all workers. And the more people demanding them, the better. Even more so if the people demanding them have greater access to the resources needed to actually make a difference.
Never once has "divided we conquer" been true.
Tell me you know fuck all about unionization without telling me. Its all the same. We all, the working class, are advocating for the same fucking rights, boundaries, and protections. Deliveroo driver and tech employee both wanna go home at a reasonable time of night and sleep well knowing they can pay their bills.
Working at Google is not what it used to be 20 years ago. Not only would an average CEO be better off but there are plenty of other tech companies better to work at as well. Google engineers are salary workers not much different than any other
Those I know drive tesla and porsche, spend their long holidays traveling the world in expensive places, and have higher entry salaries than management in banks, with larger bonuses.
But apparently you guys know different engineers that struggle to survive... Fine with that. I might know only the lucky ones.
Otherwise we are all proletariat. Which is a news for me. I can finally complain with my "real proletarian" friends that I am as well a proletarian sharing the struggle, although I am definitely not.
Anyway, I will stop arguing. Apparently labeling google engineers as proletariat is an important topic in Lemmy, that users do with extra passion
You are the one who came in and insisted on specific labels. People disagree with you. Don't pretend this was our passion, it was yours.
Title of this post is literally the label I commented on: proletariat
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.
He said without a trace of irony.
Oh man, guy saved 3k a year, so rich /s
I love when you guys tell on yourselves lol
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.
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.
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.
Apologies, I didn't realize that your goal was to promote capitalism and defeat class solidarity.
Can't defeat something that isn't real.
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
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.
That took a hella weird twist lol