That doesn't change the fact that it comes from absolute privilege to tell someone that they should just quit their job because you don't agree with the ethics or morality of work they're doing.
If you HAVE the privilege, the savings, the good health not needing COBRA, etc, then by all means walk away. You also don't mention having children, I know a LOT of parents and they absolutely don't have the money to be able to just walk away and keep their kids lifestyles, healthcare, etc until finding something new.
But judging someone potentially desperate and on already on the edge for where they work in most cases is pretty off. You have your own story someone wouldn't be aware of without telling them that as you say may make it impossible to dig yourself out of a hole. Who knows what situation someones in?
I would rather you be homeless than have you be part of making an airplane unsafe and I will judge you for that. I don't care how hard life is for you and I don't expect others to care how life has been for me - if you are part of making other people unnecessarily unsafe I hope you burn in hell for eternity. It's not a matter of privilege and just because you have found your way of being ok with it does not mean I still will not judge such decisions as unethical, immoral, improper and unbecoming of human in general and an engineer specifically.
None of this was a competition, super strange to make it so and not just recognize not everyone can quit their job today, nod your head and agree.
Because that is a fact.
I would like to think that even without ME/CFS I would still hold such views.
I recognize that Jane with 4 starving kids, one with cancer, making $7.15/hr with an empty fridge and a broken down car potentially can't just quit her job at the factory today even though they switched from building cars to bombs.
My life is not a comparison against other peoples lives."
Thanks. Just because you have problems doesn't mean they're better or worse than others. This isn't about you. I'm sure your response is "I'd rather be jane than have CFS," or something about how you're morally superior and would be homeless before making a bomb/whatever.
Absolutely weird thought process, especially from someone who has never been homeless but would prefer to be homeless than xyz. Very im14andedgy vibe.
You can recognize that such people will make such decisions, and I agree that they will, but where I don't agree is that making such decisions is in anyway morally ok. If Jane chooses to keep her job where she is knowingly cutting corners on making lifesaving widgets I will judge her harshly for that regardless of her personal circumstances. If Janes work is unimportant then I couldn't care less.
You tried to invalidate their position by making this about personal experiences. When they counter with personal experiences, you don't get to cry foul and claim they made it a "competition".
And your first paragraph is just making shit up. Come on.
And second, I do know multiple people who made the choice of not getting employment somewhere unethical. It is not some kind of rare decision making. These people have children and parents that depends on them.
It is not some great unusual privilege to walk away from job like this you want to frame this as. It is where quite a lot of technicians are. You could make that argument about factory near some trailer park or poor area, but not really about us.
That's the entire point. We're privileged. My god. My example was literally a mom in a factory with starving children who began building bombs instead of cars.
As engineers we are often responsible for the creation of assets more valuable than ourselves and I think it's an essential part of the job to put our lives on the line in much the same way an airplane passenger does. And as engineers we are often also airplane passengers ourselves and must trust that other engineers that they too have put our safety ahead of their personal wellbeing.
As the middle class is crushed then sure, such ethical boundaries will fade out of necessity, and I see this as part of a descent into a low trust society and why I expect more planes to fall out of the sky, both metaphorically and literally. Once a culture tolerates such flexible ethics the boundaries will continue being pushed - there isn't a lower bound. This corruption inhibits the creation of valuable assets and will result in a massive erosion of our standard of living.
An often touted solution is Universal basic income (UBI) that would create a safety-net for engineers and those with my type of disability - but having experienced constant gaslighting on ME/CFS from doctors informed by state funded research and given the expansion of Canadian MAID style solutions to people like myself I'm very fortunate that the capitalists opportunities existed such that I did not have to rely on state 'care'.