It confuses the issue to anthropomorphize an industry category.
I don't think it's fair to blame rank-and-file tech workers. In today's scary economy, you can't blame anyone for entering a growth industry and taking a good job that's offered. Who wouldn't want a great salary, good benefits, a safe comfortable workplace, and a stable work-life balance?
The more interesting question is why are there so many tech jobs and why do they pay so well? Facebook had 35,587 full-time employees in 2018. What the hell are all of those people doing that Facebook can pay them so much?
My hunch is that this is a consequence of perilously low corporate taxes. Giant companies simply have more money than they know what to do with, so they are throwing it any place that seems reasonable. In particular, they're trying to build bigger and bigger moats to outcompete the other tech giants. The biggest moat of all is skilled humans since it takes so long to increas the supply of them. So they're throwing money at tech workers mostly to keep other companies from scooping them up.
Being essentially on retainer is great for the people who luck into that field, but it seriously screws up the economies of the few cities where it happens. Other job categories that aren't dominated by huge companies competing for each other's skilled workers don't end up driving up wages to the same degree so everyone else gets priced out.
I think the real answer is to start taxing these companies appropriately. You can look at their current behavior as wealth distribution that only trickles down to tech employees. If the wealth is going to be distributed, I'd rather some of it go to teachers, nurses, sanitation workers, and waiters too.
It confuses the issue to anthropomorphize an industry category.
I don't think it's fair to blame rank-and-file tech workers. In today's scary economy, you can't blame anyone for entering a growth industry and taking a good job that's offered. Who wouldn't want a great salary, good benefits, a safe comfortable workplace, and a stable work-life balance?
The more interesting question is why are there so many tech jobs and why do they pay so well? Facebook had 35,587 full-time employees in 2018. What the hell are all of those people doing that Facebook can pay them so much?
My hunch is that this is a consequence of perilously low corporate taxes. Giant companies simply have more money than they know what to do with, so they are throwing it any place that seems reasonable. In particular, they're trying to build bigger and bigger moats to outcompete the other tech giants. The biggest moat of all is skilled humans since it takes so long to increas the supply of them. So they're throwing money at tech workers mostly to keep other companies from scooping them up.
Being essentially on retainer is great for the people who luck into that field, but it seriously screws up the economies of the few cities where it happens. Other job categories that aren't dominated by huge companies competing for each other's skilled workers don't end up driving up wages to the same degree so everyone else gets priced out.
I think the real answer is to start taxing these companies appropriately. You can look at their current behavior as wealth distribution that only trickles down to tech employees. If the wealth is going to be distributed, I'd rather some of it go to teachers, nurses, sanitation workers, and waiters too.