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!
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?
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
I’ll swallow a lot more than my morals for enough money honey 😉
More than I’d probably care to admit to myself.
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.
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.
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?
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.
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.
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?
At one point I had a job interview with a spam company, and I took it seriously. Luckily I failed
