Along the same lines, in business school, people would talk about the importance of saving up “fuck you” money in your first few years of work - so that when you’re asked to do something unethical at work, you have enough money that you can say “fuck you” and walk way.

Of course, I’d argue that we shouldn’t give ourselves the excuse that “I don’t have the money to do the right thing” - but the concept that sometimes fighting an ethical battle requires financial “ammunition” is an interesting one.

It's not that you need money to say no to evil orders, it's that when you say no to evil orders, which anyone would do anyway, being prepared means you won't have as much trouble as a result.

>people would talk about the importance of saving up “fuck you” money in your first few years of work - so that when you’re asked to do something unethical at work, you have enough money that you can say “fuck you” and walk way.

Haha, that is definitely not what that phrase is talking about.

> It's not that you need money to say no to evil orders, it's that when you say no to evil orders, which anyone would do anyway,

Orders aren't black and white evil. If you have an insecure situation, and especially if you have dependents, than it's very natural to let lighter shades of grey slide.

"Honor is a luxury". Unfortunately, I don't remember where I read that.

David Graber in Debt : The First 5000 Years ??

Very natural sure, but it doesn't have any impact on the real ethics, to which average behavior is only an approximation.

It is what people in my biz school meant when they said it - the alternative concept of "fuck you money" meaning having so much money you can tell everyone else to "fuck off" is a peculiarly american meme, possibly even more of an east coast finance thing? I could definitely imagine the people I knew doing finance in Chicago and on wall street using it in that way