> As far as physical hardship, look at all the folks with carpal tunnel syndrome, obesity, diabetes, bad backs from slouching, or any of the other issues endemic to white-collar long-hour development work.
These aren't problems inherent in the profession. Not every white-collar worker is fat with diabetes. Plenty of developers find time to work out and take care of themselves, and being part of this 10% affords them the luxury to get a gym membership or buy healthy food.
This is very different than someone who puts in grueling hours of manual labor or makes a wage that puts them below the poverty line, forcing them to eat cheap, unhealthy food every day.
So, it sounds like you don't get a lot of face-time with folks that work in enterprise, or SMB development. You know, places with at least an hour-long commute both ways, where the defacto lunch is something from the local wings joint.
Or, you know, where the folks are so buried in loan and student debt that are effectively below the poverty line, but they just get to claim a nicer cell. They're no more free than your blue-collar folks.
I think you're incorrect about this. I think you aren't counting the mental and emotional toll of working on projects that get arbitrarily shitcanned, or working 120-hour weeks because you think you'll be the king of the roach bucket because your investors said so, or the constant dehumanization of "You are programmer beep boop why can't you just make this business concept work?".
As far as physical hardship, look at all the folks with carpal tunnel syndrome, obesity, diabetes, bad backs from slouching, or any of the other issues endemic to white-collar long-hour development work.
And for all that, we're still probably just going to be me, complaining about the working conditions and things that suck, and you, dismissing those same issues because some Kazak iron worker works in a dangerous foundry. This is stupid.
No one in the top 10% has any business complaining except about the condition of the bottom 50%,
See, this line of thinking expands easily: "Nobody in the top 30% has any valid complaint, except..."
Suffering is suffering. Handcuffs are handcuffs, golden or not. Abuse is abuse, whether it is from a shitty founder or a shitty secret policeman. Being underpaid is being underpaid, whether it's by one dollar or a hundred thousand.
Your line only suits the super-rich, and is a great appeal to guilt to help people ignore how much they're getting shafted.
EDIT:
So, again, not a single act of self-abasement or renouncing of privilege is going to do anything to help those truly in need. Face facts: there's not enough room in the clubhouse for everyone, and we don't help ourselves by voluntarily standing outside, unless it's with torches.