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Comment by 5trokerac3 | Hacker News Reader

Do they? If you're waiting for a ton of options to vest, how much will you potentially lose by leaving? Where else is there to jump to in the Valley that isn't a startup that could close in a month, or isn't underhandedly conspiring with FB to not to hire each other's employees? If you're lucky enough to own property in Palo Alto - if your kids go to school there, how much do you want to have to commute to a place like the Financial District and have to play human feces hopscotch every day?

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This comment is a great insight into the state of modern thinking on ethics. In this thinking, ethics are determined by economic result. I guarantee you that almost any Facebook employee could walk away with the clothes on their back and find a great school in Wisconsin for their children while they pay cash for a modest home. They could work for any of a hundred employers there that would benefit from their skills.

There are schools and jobs waiting in Georgia and Texas and Wyoming. They aren't Valley jobs. But they offer comfortable lives.

I appreciate the honesty of the parent post. It's all about the money and lifestyle. The part that makes me blink is that they think this somehow alters the ethics in a positive way.

I think the fear might be that by leaving the valley there will be no way back in for them or their kids, even if the valley reforms.

Your comment is a great insight into modern, black and white thinking, where one is expected to equate working at FB with committing the worst atrocities.

If I had a job, for example, maintaining photo storage at FB, should I be so ethically outraged that I should upend my whole life, and my family's life, to run away as quickly as possible?

This is not the argument to which I responded. If you want to argue that many jobs at FB are perfectly ethical, make that argument. If you want to argue that _every_ job at FB is ethical, make that argument.

If you want to argue that it is hard to quit FB because of money and schools, and that that changes the ethics, see my comment above.

You're crossing the wires on two different points.

1. I'm not arguing that every job at FB is ethical, I'm arguing that most aren't so unethical that one would permanently taint one's soul by staying there. This is especially so if you consider that FB has a chance to change, no matter how slim that chance is. Perhaps these people believe in the stated mission of FB and think they can help.

2. It's not at all easy to leave a job - not every engineer is a 20-something nomad with no kids. Finding a gig that matches a AAA, SV company in sum benefits is a hard task on its own, even if you're not geographically limited due to familial sentiment or obligations.

You hit the nail on the head there. Many people don't care about ethical situations like this as long as they are getting paid. Its not that its wrong, its just that it may not be ideal if we want a society that works for all people. But to be fair, Wisconsin and Silicon Valley have different value systems.

I hope more people see your comment. It is top notch.

Strawmen - In every moral decision there are inevitably "real world" concerns that make the choices easier or harder, sure.

That only changes the costs of the options, not the fact that you are either complicit or choose to leave.

Specific to your specifics, if changing circumstances _in_ the Valley is so hard, leave the Valley as well. I live in the Midwest, so my perspective has it's own skew, but SV sounds more and more like a crazy place to even try to live.

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