How far would you swallow your morals for money?
what is the furthest you'd go immorally for a fresh salary? Hell I'd work for Palantir for a nice $250k or be a manager at Evil Corporation Inc if I got a crisp $300k.
or are you a goody two shoes who will stand by your principles even if it means pain!
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This question really highlights how this is by design.
The system becomes more and more expensive to exist in, forcing people to choose money over morals every day just to survive.
Because if you're living paycheck to paycheck, of course you'll work for raytheon.
Of course youll take that 50k cash for joining the ICE gestapo.
Of course you'll only ever buy the cheapest shit from amazon and temu despite then using slave labour and killing factory workers.
Of course you'll give up your morals to not have to live like everyone else that's been made into the impoverished 90% of the population, on the astronomical chance you'll get a taste of the 1% life.
Buying less is the closest thing you can do to an ethical choice. So I have started to grow some of my own food and encourage friends to come round mine instead of going to a restaurant, plus I can make better food and brew my own mead.
How many people working at Auschwitz were justifying it by needing the money, what did they need the money for?
nobody working for raytheon is working paycheck to paycheck. their starting salaries are over 100K for entry level jobs.
not to mention they make a lot more they weapons. they make radars and sensors.
You misread my comment. I said "If you're living paycheck to paycheck, of course you'll work for raytheon" meaning that someone who is living on the edge of homelessness will give up their morals and take the job at raytheon, because of the money.
Radars and sensors for what, schoolbuses? Hospitals?
A company making military hardware doesn't need to make explosives for them to be making weapons.
The same way these AI companies don't have to pull the trigger, they just provide server space to run their 'target acquisition' software and let the jackbooted thugs do the rest.
someone living on the edge of homelessness won't ever be hired by them. Their workforce is upper middle class professionals.
for aviation and boats and civilian applications. they also make navigation systems, autopilots, etc.
I have friends who work for Raytheon, last time I checked they were just nerdy engineers, not jackbooted thugs.
When you're in a wilful misrepresentation competition and your opponent is an online commenter...
I didn't say your friends were jackbooted thugs. I am talking about the people and governments that these companies supply.
I would, however, say your friends are working for a company that is actively arming and supporting ethnic cleansing and genocide.
Im an out of work professional who could conveivably work at raytheon and it kinda depends on what you mean by edge but eventually if something does not happen myself and my wife will be homeless. Savings run out.
Salary level has nothing to do with "living paycheck to paycheck." I've met plenty of well paid people that fit that description. Either because of cost of living or just because they're dumb and can't live below their means.
salary level well above median income and you're living paycheck to paycheck is a personal problem. Not a social problem.
I once quit a well-paying job on the spot.
I was asked to write nuclear reactor safety specifications that I did not feel remotely qualified to write.
I would never take a job at Palantir, United Healthcare, Nestle, Lockheed martin DeBeers. I don't give a fuck if they offered me million, but I'm Neurodivergent with a strong sense of justice while lacking the mental ability to act on it.
I'd take the job, but I'd be shit at it and basically just goof off all day
Haha it’s weaponized incompetence. I would take a job at Palantir to sabotage it - especially if they paid me a lot
Take it, suck just enough at the job to not get fired, use the money to lobby against evil policies/fund grassroots groups that support 'changing' the current politicians out
It depends on how dispersed the consequences are. Definitely no single human life is ruined.
I'd steal a dollar from a 100k people.
I'd not steal 100k from one person if they're not a multimillionaire at least.
When I was younger, I wouldn't have cared that much.
Now I would not work for criminals anymore.
I am good at my job, so my work has impact. If I worked for the bad guys, then that would mean my work turns the world in a bad direction. Every day.
How you spend your days is how you spend your life.
Worked for a payday loan company for a while about a decade back. Supposedly one of the better ones to borrow from, and they always said internally it was about getting the customers financial options - but still didn't feel great. Stuck with it for four years or so though.
Now I've got kids, and they like to know what their parents do. Had to job hunt last half of last year, and skipped several nice positions at big places because of what they do. Landed a position at a local place for less than I wanted, but the perks and culture make up for it. And I'm happy to tell my kids where I am.
My wife knew what the first place was about, and she accepted it even if neither of us was wild about it. But these days, we like to be role models - makes a big difference.
Did not and still would not.
Hell, I even got fired from a nursing job for telling doctors they did a poor job with a patient to their face. While being the main income, with two kids.
You adapt, find something else.
No regrets, would even say it's a building moment for oneself. If you fold at the first pression, you'll always fold. My moral compass is too important for me to sell it.
Can't find ? Change job, change region, change country. Most of the time, you have a choice.
I wouldn't work for Palantir for any amount of money under any circumstance I can imagine.
I wouldn't be able to live with myself.
I've turned down jobs because I thought they would make the world worse.
I've literally said "people like you are the reason the world sucks" to peoples faces.
It's unlikely to change anyone, but someone has to tell them. Otherwise, the ones that try to lie to themselves about what they're doing, might succeed.
I've found it's better to focus on people's actions, rather than the people themselves. i.e. if I tell someone they as a person are a problem, that's very hard for them to change. If I tell them their action is a problem, that's a lot easier.
ofc it may still be tough to change their action, but at least it makes them consider why they are commiting that action, and it may even lead to the realization that (often) the problem is systemic.
That line is always said in direct response to something they do.
If you focus on the action, you allow a lot of people to take comfort in the illusion that they are a good person, despite their actions.
That's not how it works. If you do evil, then you are part of the problem. That only changes once you stop.
I think we fundamentally agree, and are now just debating tactics. Personally I've found that telling someone they're evil makes it easy for them to dismiss my opinion completely.
Yes.
And that's not what I do. Participating in evil is evil. I remind people of that. It's so normal that it's easy to forget.
If a person isn't evil, they should want to stop as soon as possible. The ones that care can easily forget to endeavor to do so. Me included.
people like your boss* are the reason the world sucks
By that logic, only the CEO is guilty.
The investors*
can't exactly say this but I have refused to sign bs contracts and lost severance and also put up enough stipulations to not get something that was morally questionable. basically they could have me with a certain set of ground rules.
I "sold out" i was desperate and took a job with Burson-Marsteller a major crisis response public relations company. I got fired after 4 months for making fun of a client to a co-worker. I saw some shit that made me never go against my morals after that. The worst thing (that I can talk about since it was leaked to the press already) was Mars candy company lobbying congress to make sugar based snacks part of school lunches.
this was my response. I would 100% take the job but not hold onto like its gold. Speak up. Challenge bs things. etc. sure you will get fired but you will get some money.
More than I'd probably care to admit to myself.
The thing about working for evil people is it’s not just the work. You’re surrounded by people with no morals day in and day out, so you’re never safe. Everyone around you will cut you down to get ahead- that’s the job. You’ll be forced to develop paranoia, no way around it. You’ll be forced to do that to others as well, and you’ll lose sight of why that’s a bad thing. “Everyone does it,” “it’s just part of the game,” “I had it worse before,” or “I deserved it.” It’s bad for you. I don’t want to be around those people, personally. If you have any critical thinking and empathy at all, you’ll see through them and recognize that they’re just always horrible.
Fun thought experiment, but I don’t think one can know without it truly on the table. I like to think I would not at all, but my responsibilities to loved ones may force me to in some situation.
Easy, just don't have so many loved ones. /s
As someone who doesn't really have responsibilities to loved ones I don't really know what I would do with it if I suddenly got something like 3k a month (total). So a 300k yearly which is almost 9x more doesn't really appeal to me, unless the job itself is nice.
its basically one of the reasons to not have kids. you see how people can be controlled in this way and at best these kids are going to be in your same position or worse as things have been going for the last 50 years. luckily older folk generally have done a bit better and you don't have to worry about them much.
Everyone's a saint until the rent's due...
I'm currently working on making a graceful exit from a position I'm no longer comfortable with, so it's hard to say what I'd do if offered a massive salary to put myself back into a similar situation.
I suspect that there are few ethically pure jobs out there, and very few alternatives that don't feed into the orphan crushing machine somehow. So in my mind it comes down to striking a balance between what impact your position has, what level of control you exercise over what the company does, and what you can do outside of work to try and improve the system.
Are you willing to campaign and vote against the interests of your employer even if it means the possibility of being laid off or fired? Does supporting yourself financially provide a benefit to marginalized people by making the scarce aid they can find more available to them? Are you designing products or processes to increase other's misery or just mopping the floor? If you quit, what impact would it have on the org as a whole?
I don't think there's a simple answer to this, and I've long felt that we allow our occupations define our identites to an unhealthy degree, so I'd rather judge and be judged based on one's beliefs and actions outside of work than for participating in a system designed to force our participation.
You're pricing yourself too cheaply. My soul is easily worth seven figures...
Seriously, if you're willing to do immoral things for money you need to take a hard look at yourself and your views about what is moral and why. And are you willing to do things that will make anonymous strangers suffer? How about your friends? Research strongly suggests that a willingness to put the good of the community above our own needs is probably why humans as a species are still around. What kind of person do you want to see in the mirror every morning?
I'm not comfortable with even mild compromise.
Yeah, I feel like if I'd call something my personal "moral" that there's a pretty hard line there. That said, I guess I don't have more than a few real morals, though.
I'd rather live on the streets than work for palantir.
250k is SO LOW man. It's not that hard to get by and be happy on 60k a year if you use your money right. Your happiness and peace can't be quantified. Do you want to enjoy life, love people, and make the world better? Or just be another parasite who makes everyone's life just a bit worse every day
I was fortunate enough to grow up firmly middle class. My dad sold car chemicals for a pretty good income. He and my stepmom (who also made good money in project management) explained the concept of golden handcuffs to me in high school, that when you start making a lot of money and get used to that lifestyle it’s tough to take a pay cut that takes it away. They didn’t seem especially happy or content to me so having a lot of money has never been a priority for me. I just want enough to get by and save for the future.
When I was scraping by on 28k a year slinging pizzas and delivering for the post office on Amazon Sundays I told my project manager uncle that if I made twice what I did at the time I would be fine. Now I do make 60k working IT for a school district where I can sometimes do some good, and like I had told my uncle I’m doing fine now. I have a pension, I can max out my Roth IRA, have a good down payment for my next car when mine kicks the bucket, and I’m lucky enough to rent a couple rooms relatively cheap from a friend who was lucky enough for their farmer parents to buy them most of a house, all owing me to save a few hundred a month for a house of my own. And I can still buy nice stuff for myself every now and then.
Sometimes I think it would be nice to have an extra 10 or 20k for extra breathing room, but moving back to the private sector would suck, and I would probably just end up like my mother whose financial advisor literally tells her to spend more money. I feel very privileged to say this, but I just don’t think I could be bought at this point.
Itt, people build the Torment Nexus
Sure I'll take the Palantir job and do work that's at best useless and at worst actively damaging them , then keep trying to pin the blame on others. Let's see how long they'll keep paying me.
But I have heard that they got bosses there. With whips.
Not for a salary. My morals are holding out for some kind of corruption at least.
There’s a recent Ezra Klein on “salaries are for suckers” as relates to our tax code and how the billionaires evade taxation.
Income tax is set up to gouge us, working class, skilled and unskilled, from those working at Taco Bell to Doctors, while letting stock holder based income remain untouched.
it drives me nuts to see doctors and such be so anti tax. its like your supposed to be smart. don't you see how the highest tax bracket pretty much ends with you?! You should be demanding a million dollar bracket and 10mil and so on.
Anyone that would sell out for something as petty as money is, in my opinion, human garbage.
What if its a lot of money that you could use for good? Or if the alternative is being unemployed, losing your house and family.
False choice allows to justify anything.
You can also find a job that pays less but allows you to live with yourself in the values you've chosen.
It would be illegal to pay someone less than minimum wage. Some people really don't have much choice for employment and just have to take what they can get.
Levels of evil vary of course. If the choice was work for the IDF for £250k or doctors without borders for £25k that is a much easier ethical choice to take than choosing between Amazon or unemployed.
Where the hell your family going? They arnt family because youre broke? There are other jobs? There are family rooms in homless shelters? Grab a tent?
Must be nice to live a life where you have never been pushed by everyone close to you to take literally any job no matter what and made to feel like a failure for not finding one.
I dont keep people like that close to me. Luck? Not so much, strong boundaries, yeah.
Can't move out without money, also got the media and government employees making you feel worthless for being unemployed.
Well thats on you for letting "media and government" opinions have effect. Those influences shouldnt hold value in your own opinion of yourself.
I got booted out on my own at 17, state put me in a shelter until I turned 18. Was homeless multiple times until I found a carrer I thought ethical. Like I said, poverty doesnt scare me. Working for someone who is the boot on folks neck do. Im also nerodivergent, and literally cant stand to stay in a place, living or working, that infringes on mine or others freedoms. I go without, a lot. Found the most community I'll ever probably expierence, in the lowest of places. I like the low places. Suits and tie types scare me.
State assistance types who look down on folks should rot in their chairs. Again, their opinion doesnt change facts. If you qualify, you qualify, miss nancy on her high horse can eat a dick.
I've walked miles in car centric infanstructure, with groceries I had to scrape up money to afford strapped to my back in 100degree heat, all the while cursing the suburban moms in their cars with their AC thinking, "Im stronger than youll ever be".
Ones own will is a tool to be wielded.
When you have nothing, you have a different type of freedom.
It's okay by me to accept help where you can, give back where you can, and the people who abuse power are so, so very small (not in numbers but in personhood)
I'm not gonna judge what someone else might stoop to to feed their kids.
I'm lucky enough to be in a position where I can be picky - not everyone gets to say that
say this again after you've gone a few years broke
Been broke my whole life, I dont fear poverty. Sell your soul for money, youre a shit human.
I've been broke, even homeless, and I agree with @[email protected]. Of course, that's part of how I ended up that way.
You're right that people often do desperate things when impoverished, but it's not like it absolves them of any morality.
I have a pretty strong adherence to my personal moral compass. So - a lot more than some. There are politicians who get caught taking 4 and 5 figure bribes or job offers with mid 6 figures (USD). I wouldn’t sell out my people - and risk being caught - for less than 7 figures. Money that makes me comfortable to disappear and not work.
For a job, it needs to be fuck you money (buy a Japanese shit box and midsize home with enough left to live the rest of my life) within a tolerable period and that depends on the job, but I suspect seldom would it exceed 3 years.
Hard to say. The amount of money someone would have to pay me to murder someone, for example, would be in the tens of millions, but I have no use for that much money so risking it feels pointless.
It would pretty much need to be so much that I could retire in a year or two - otherwise it's pretty meaningless. I'm already in the financial situation where I can afford almost anything I want, and what I want isn't that much. Most of it I already have.
murder is a bit to far for me. maybe if it was a lot and they could convince me its a greater type of good. like not only are they bad but they can't be arrested and will continue to do bad things that must be prevented.
Murder is simple, honest work compared to lobbying or investment banking
Or insurance.
If it was up close and personal, then probably for me too no matter what the price is. However, if it was "press a button and someone somewhere dies and you get paid" then probably not if I'm being completely honest.
yeah I bet its gonna be tough once you actually have to push the button and start thinking about who it could be. I mean not specifying is even worse as it could be you or the most important people to you.
Interesting question. I think it partially depends on how high up in the company I am, and how much I could damage them without being caught.
The older I get, the more I realise I am susceptible to moral injury. I can't do evil work without destroying myself. And I don't mean morally as in I feel a little guilty - I get increased stress, more depressed etc.
But unfortunately, I need to keep a roof over my head and stay fed.
the lucky thing is I have an ability to do incredible things and also do a half assed job. my motivation is a combination of extrinsinct factors like pay and instrinsinct factors like if what im doing is beneficial or harmful.
I’ve outright not even looked at opportunities working in certain companies eg Meta, gambling firms etc.
Have worked for an ‘evil’ corpo before when I was very young and became disillusioned and jaded.
It’s a major consideration for me now when looking at potential employers, as to how ethical it is and what it gives back to society.
I don’t just want to make line go up for shareholders, I would like to make a difference, however naive that may sound.
I wouldn't.
Gross take. Call me a goody two shoes if you want, but I wouldn't, and I actively look down on people who do.
The only way you'd get me to work for those kinds of companies is if I could actively sabotage them from the inside.
Been there, done that - kept my morals/ethics. I am retiring this year. Not as well off as maybe I could have been but I can look myself in the mirror and I sleep well at night. I have enough. Not as much as others who put money above everything, but enough. I also never need to worry about someone stabbing me or shooting me because my business caused loss to them. I don't have to worry that my partner or children are toxic and only want my money which often happens to people who don't have ethics or morals and are only out for the money themselves - like attracts like?
I don't, and haven't, and I've lived in poverty before that the average person would find humiliating.
That said, I can see I have a stronger sense of righteousness than the average person, probably due to some type of neurodivergence. I have dealt with plenty of bullying for it. So the pain that comes from it sometimes is something I'm used to and no longer afraid of.
It's easier once you lose the fear. Fear is what pushes people to compromise their morals.
It also helps that I'm relatively smart and can always find alternative options so far.
Well... I was 1/3 heir to a large apartment building that around that time was worth approximately 30 million dollars. It was not a family member of mine. But I had been performing most of the maintenance tasks in the building for about 4 years at that point.
I walked away from it over a couple things. The children of the owner were causing issues because I was entrusted with a lot of access and other things they didn't like, the owner had no concept of value of other people's time, and the owner had created a safety hazard in the building fire alarm system and ignored it even though i told him it needed to be fixed and was outside of my purview.
A few years after I left the fire alarm panel still had the same issue. The battery charger was not working correctly and the batteries needed replaced/upgraded. The Fire Marshall walked into the building after an anonymous tip I made and the panel was in an audible fault condition.
After I left my wife was sick and we were nearly homeless living in an old rv in a friend's driveway. It took us about 7 months to get back on our feet again.
I'd need enough money to never have to worry about money ever again. And even then, it wouldn't be without hesitation.
I’d lie my way into a position that can run on autopilot for a few months, while I line up the next scam. The real skill would be maintaining the ruse across organizations, while actively working against the environments I would con my way into.
Depends entirely on the moral and the money.
Would I rip out a page from a hardcover book for a billion dollar? Probably.
Would I kill a human being for any amount? Absolutely not.
I took a pretty good cut in pay to work for a nonprofit I believe in. Years later it's still just getting by but now I run it and our first quarter of 2026 was the best in the last few years. But my wife has three jobs, I have two kids in college and a third close behind. We're still struggling. I could make more money a lot of places. And no, I wouldn't work for an evil company.
I have no code of ethics, I will kill anyone, anywhere. Children, animals, old people. Doesn't matter! I just love money!
Sounds more like you like killing.
Well, it's not exactly a cheap hobby!
What experience do you being to fill this position?
Depends on how much do I need the money. Last time I was looking for work I wasn't stressed so I wasn't even considering offers from companies in fields I consider immoral like crypto or gambling. If I had to choose between working for Google or living with my parents I would work for Google.
If I already had a job paying €50k and some evil company wanted to pouch me this is how much they would have to pay me:
Google: €150k
OpenAI: €200k
Meta: €300k
Amazon: € 500k
Microsoft: €500k
Palantir: never
id put meta as more than microsoft and amazon.
I guess perspective is important here. My personal morals are very important to me and I have been tested. Those don't bend even if it means going against the crowd or friends.
At the same time I won't pretend that my personal set of morals is completely in line with what a majority would call normal.
Honestly, most people working at a large corporation are not that impactful. Just a cog in the machine. The worst part is being surrounded by people who lack any morals/values. So I guess I'd work anywhere until I feel like I'm adding too much value to a company and/or I get sick of the people I work with.
Just like any soldier in Nazi Germany's army. Being a cog in the machine does not take away the guild from killing someone, or, if we are talking about "evil" companies, from denying someone treatment, or violating someone's privacy, or...
Are we really going to equate someone who might be working in accounting for Facebook to a soldier in Nazi Germany...?
Is the American empire that far away from Hitler's body count? Or did it exceed it already in the 1800s?
Of course not, but that line of reasoning sounds similar to "I was just following orders".
I think it would depend on the price. I'll screw one annoying person over if I get paid maybe $1.5B, nothing less. The person needs to be very annoying.
At one point I had a job interview with a spam company, and I took it seriously. Luckily I failed
For a paycheck? Meh. I’ve lived comfortably on $35k or less for almost 30yrs, there’s no allure to a bigger check. If you gave me a scenario where I desperately needed the money, say to save my dog’s life, I’d still try and figure out a way to lie, cheat, steal, or kill some rich, conservative asshole to get the money rather than work for them.
I'm pretty sure OP went as far as they could...
Interesting question.
I have (personal) ethics, I don't have any morals: I don't believe in good vs evil). My ethics help decide on a case by case situation what I should (not) do as there is no predefined rule in regards to earning money, nor on how to use said money once it's earned.
I mean, would you consider it 'moral' to use, say, the million of dollars one may have earned speculating on Meta or Tesla stocks, or any other 'immoral' company like those, to support a 'moral' non-profit like the EFF, or the FSF?
I would not invest in say crypto to fund EFF or FSF but I would be fine with like an SP500 investments doing so even though its likely there are all sorts of bad stuff in there. Honestly if I had that type of money I would likely spend more time deciding on how my investments were done to encourage the good while not losing money and then decide on what amount to put toward EFF and FSF.
I'm gonna be a pedant here. I understand (I think) what you're trying to express and differentiate. It's just the words aren't perfectly accurate.
"Personal" ethics are morals. Ethics are community based standards or principles, morals are personal standards. Some people equate morals to religious guidelines or principles, but morals don't have to be religious (nor do distinctions of good and evil, right and wrong). Personal understanding of what is right or wrong is a moral standing. It is possible to have morals (personal belief) based on ethics (community standard), but they are still morals.
IMO, anyway.
Morals can be principally driven, and often are even in people that don't understand the principle that underlies an ethical standard. For instance, a conscientious objector might still defend themselves or others from personal violence. In this case the underlying principle is one of, say, political neutrality, or perhaps political opposition, not pacifism. And yet the person themselves might not be able to put into words why is okay to use violence one on one, but not militarily. I'm rambling
.
English is obviously not my first language, but reading the good old Wikipedia it seems to me the two are rather different (like they're in my own native French, btw ;): ethics and moral
Neat! I'm gonna come back to this once I've finished work. I was using the OED definitions and understanding:
But this idea of an Aristotelian understanding of ethics vs morals is fascinating. Thank you for the link :-D
Also it is not obvious from your original comment that English is a secondary language for you <3 French is on my bucket list, but I want to learn basic German first. Both for etymological reasons primarily
You're more than welcome.
Thx (here you might want to add a blushing emoji, if there is such a thing)
This would make sense.
Plus, ignoring any other consideration, German language has produced quite a few remarkable authors/poets/philosophers that are more than worth (re)reading. I would not want to have to decide between French and German (or English) but I can understand the desire to prioritize one above the others.
Working in IT is rife with these kinds of philiosophical quantries. Right now, I try to seek out work that is as ethically and morally aligned with my values as possible, while still building a comfortable retirement for me and my partner. That also means working where I am skilled, and so I pay a price for not being more based earlier in my career.
For the moment, let's push aside the whole problem of working for money in a society with little to no safety-net, as exploitative in the first place. Also, the problem that while not a zero-sum game, moving money around usually has exploitative moments for others.
At present, I would (and have) refused work that would inflict harm directly or indirectly on others. I consider participating in increasing strife, wealth extraction, and exploitation to be a big part of that. I work in an industry (IT) that has big problems with pollution and waste, concentrating wealth in the hands of the few, and more recently, stressing public resources (AI through power and water); this is a story that I do not like and wrestle with constantly. No job is perfect, but some are better than others.
All this leads me to a stance of trying to balance the above. This pragmatism also has me thinking in terms of harm reduction, which brings me to an actual answer to OP's question.
Were the job something that gave me enough leeway to reduce harm, I might consider a position that doesn't align well with my values. A much bigger paycheck would go a long way to help that - I might be able to do more for people with more disposable capital. To be blunt, it would be like taking a bet that were I not involved, things would be worse.
The pay would have to be figured out on a scale of moral compromise. A little more compromising than now would be at least a half million/yr, but i'd need to be upper management to defend livlelyhoods and chart a stable forward direction for people. Once we get into life-and-limb territory, we've transcended salary so "total compensation" would need to be in the millions and I'd still require levers to pull to prevent harm. I'm not sure that kind of position exists without owning the whole company.
My morals are probably more flexible than I think.
I already work a job that conflicts with my veganism so I can afford my transition :/
Basically if there's no crimes against humanity and I'm jot directly harming anyone.
I'd like to say my line is morals are more stringent than that, but I just don't have that option.
If I needed to help my family almost anything, if just me nothing
Hey guys, now think about it again but now you have 3 kids and a mortgage.
I did. That's why I don't have 3 kids and a mortgage.
Yup. figured out that strategy back in the aughts and what I saw back then was not even as bad as it is now so I underestimated the suck.
Cute. But some people are in their fifties or sixties with a family, have been able to "follow their morals" all their lives, and then lose their job. Try finding a job when you're that old.
You're all so fucking smug.
I don't mean any disrespect, you're right, food/housing insecurity is a systemic problem even though it doesn't need to be and high-quality individual decisionmaking doesn't provide any guarantees.
If I'm being flippant it's a reaction to those who say families (especially large families) are a joy and blessing and everybody needs to own a house. That might be true in some cases but for others of us that was never something we could count on so we had to adjust. No disrespect to anyone though, truly we all deserve better.
I get everything I need from my current salary, so right now it would be infinity dollars. More money won't make me happier and an eviler job would make me less happy.
But if my family was in danger of becoming homeless, then I would do nearly anything to protect them. It's easy to say now, but I'd probably value their lives at significantly more than the lives I'd take. Especially if I felt the victims were deserving somehow.
I'd like to think I would stand by my principles... but realistically, in this economy?? My degree is too specialized & the job market is pretty tight. I'm pretty sure most people in my field would go to a job at Nestle or Palantir without a second thought for something as simple as 10-20k above market rate and/or visa sponsorship 😭
If I have options, probably at least a net $50k/yr premium for a dubious company, and a net $150k/yr or more (which I will bail quickly) for a company that is straight-up evil
As a nihilist and a misanthropist: all the way baby
It would depend on what would it entail, for how long, how much, etc. It is a balance.
Right now I earn very little but I'm doing fine with zero headaches. So I would need a huge lot more than if I didn't have a job or really need the money for something.
I will take Palantir's money and do my best to be the worst I can be at the job they hired me for. I'll have to donate a sizable portion of the money though...
This is why my dislike of owning stuff is kinda useful, I honestly can't see myself physically spending any more than $100K a year.
So I guess being mid-level software engineer at google for 6 figures? I would still be throwing sawdust into the machine daily.
I'll swallow a lot more than my morals for enough money honey 😉
I want to tell myself that I wont fold but only time will tell :/ Maybe I will come back later and give an update Cyall in 10 years!(if we still have a planet etc). If I do become evil, please beat me up and tell me that "younger me" sent you
Morals? Lol. Just kidding.
Yes.
Oh I wold take the jobs but I would not be hell bent on holding onto them.
Having to directly harm people, whether with a weapon or even spoken words, is my line cause I'm bitchmade and can't hurt anyone. Anything else comes down to the paycheck amount. I already work at a slaughterhouse (the cows have been dead for at least 1-3 days by the time I've seen the carcuss) making $50k paid hourly with benefits. You want me to do anything else, the starting salary better be at least $62k paid hourly with benefits. I ain't doing over 40 hours without overtime pay.