You fundamentally do not understand the definition of totalitarianism which is why, you, simply lofting that word at everyone in every direction to blanket disparage things you don't like results in 90% of your comment history being greyed out.

I know I'm wasting my time here but here is the first three definitions of totalitarianism I was able to find :

(emphasis mine)

> Britannica: Totalitarianism: *form of government* that theoretically permits no individual freedom and that seeks to subordinate all aspects of individual life to the authority of the state.

> Google : relating to a *system of government* that is centralized and dictatorial and requires complete subservience to the state.

> Dictionary.com : of or relating to a *centralized government* that does not tolerate parties of differing opinion and that exercises dictatorial control over many aspects of life.

A business is not a government and you are using the term in a meaningless context so you are going to have to forgive everyone else for pointing out that what you are saying makes absolutely zero sense.

> A business is not a government

Yes it is, hence the existence of concepts like https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Corporate_governance and https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Workplace_democracy

Employers have a great deal of authority of their employee's lives - to that extent they govern their employees. This is all straightforward, conventional usage of these words and terms.

Government also makes the rules about how businesses operate (property law, contract law, and so forth), and give businesses the right to enforce them - in this way, businesses are an extension of government in the control they have over our lives.

All you're doing is question-begging the exact premise I'm critiquing in the first place: That the workplace is in a magic separate dimension where principles usually agreed to be good (democracy, equality) are no longer desirable or even applicable.

That is honestly probably the single dumbest things I've ever seen written on hacker news. Congrats.

Instead of insults, perhaps you could explain what you think is wrong with it or what you disagree with.

I'm not sure why this has made you angry - perhaps you've become irrationally attached to certain ideological beliefs, and my pointing them out has triggered you.

>A business is not a government

>Yes it is

Some things reach a point of idiocy where no one is going to be convinced and you just need to call things what they are. And that is fucking moronic. So let's just stick with that.

Imagine being so convinced you're correct that you call others idiots and morons, when a cursory read of the relevant wikipedia article would show that you're obviously wrong.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Government

Emphasis mine:

> A government is the system or group of people governing an organized community, *generally* a state.

> While *all types of organizations have governance*, the term government is *often* used more specifically, to refer to the approximately 200 independent national governments and subsidiary organizations.

So you are simply ignorant of the broader meaning of the term. I look forward to your apology. But do please try to interact with more humility and politeness in future, and be familiar with the very basics of a topic before debating it.

> you must do exactly as your boss says without question though.

You left off "if you want your boss to give you gobs of money every two weeks".

It’s a two-way street, though. If you’re a half-decent software engineer there are tons of bosses willing to give you gobs of money. And smart bosses recognize that.

Absolutely. But the idea that this is a "totalitarian" deficiency in the country's provision of negative rights is ludicrous.

"Do what I say or I'll cut off your income, depriving you of food and shelter" is exactly the kind of authoritarianism I'm talking about.

Basecamp isn't the only way on earth that these people can make an income

So as long as you can take your pick between a number of different authoritarian situations, that's OK?

Are you a socialist/communist? I've only heard socialists talk in these types of terms, "authoritarian" "totalitarian" etc when referring to the workplace.

I'm simply trying to get to the heart of people's beliefs, and understand why they think the way they do.

Well I'd say that companies, unlike governments in a nation, are myriad, and one has choices as to where to go. Similarly, the founders should retain as much control as they wish, as do the employees, as it's a bilateral contract. Now, for companies that essentially force workers to work, such as minimum wage shops, I have no sympathy for them.

Governments are myriad, just like companies are. There are hundreds to choose from, and one has choices as to where to go.

Sure, and if people don't like one, they are free to move to another country as well. Although this is harder by at least an order of magnitude than switching jobs of course.

No you aren't. You are hurling pejoratives around to win a point. As noted above, you are not even using the pejoratives correctly.

This is in no way "authoritarian". Basecamp is saying that if you want to sell your labor to them, they have a few requirements. Plenty of companies have this. Is making employees wear or uniform or wash their hands when they leave the restroom authoritarian? After all, if they don't follow those rules, they'll be fired and their income streams will be cut off.

It's fine for a job to have requirements, but why shouldn't those requirements be decided in a more democratic way?

Because the employees aren't buying their own labor. Why should they get a part in the decision about how someone else spends their money?

Because that's called plutocracy, which is bad. Things should be governed by democratic principles rather than plutocratic principles.

Particularly in the context of a workplace, where the workers are the ones actually doing all the work.

> Because that's called plutocracy, which is bad. Things should be governed by democratic principles rather than plutocratic principles.

This is a value judgment not shared by everyone. One/few person rule can be quite efficient in certain tasks such as rapid development and deployment of resources, because you can cut through red tape. At the same time, it can be inefficient in other tasks.