[consulting] Unionizing Drupal

[E.J. Zufelt]

Good afternoon Gregg,

On 2010-08-08, at 2:34 PM, Greg Holsclaw wrote:

> On the note of decreasing wages, thus is a fact if this tech industry. As a tech becomes more used, more people join the ranks of trying to make money in it.  This competition will depress wages. No economic model based on experience refutes this. 
> 
> To keep up your wage don't rest on your laurels. Keep learning new tools. If last year you could bill $80/hr don't expect to do that next year. More people will learn Drupal and under bid you. 
> 
> To keep your wage in this industry keep moving forward. Be an early adopter of Drupal 7. Learn Drush, join Dojo, give patches to modules, create a theme, learn JQuery or CSS finally. 
> 
> > Any system that seeks economic efficiency over equity is, IMO, evil...
> 
> This is absurd by simple example. Venezuela currently has rotting food in warehouses and docks because of the 'equalized' ownership of grocery stores. Their social managers aren't experienced or capable to move food around a nation before it rots, yet all the capitalistic store owners they put out of business sure were able to do it 'efficiently'.   
> 
Why is rotting food a bad thing?  If you were to argue that people were starving because of this I might agree that the current system being implemented is not necessarily the best, but the existence of rotting food isn't a good argument for efficiency.

> Efficiency makes all things cheaper, makes them faster. All people are equal in dignity in my eyes, bit not all are equal in skill set nor effort. I work hard to provide fir my family. Much harder than many I know. And I expect to be duly compensated.
> 
So, because you have skills, or the ability to gain skills, and effort, or the ability to muster effort, you deserve more economic resources than someone who is not as gifted, for lack of a better term, than you?  Does this mean that someone with multiple disabilities that prevent them from learning as quickly, or having as much effort as you ought to have less economic resources to support themselves and their family?  Is it not clear to you that your gifts are arbitrarily assigned to you, and you could have been born without these gifts?

> Yes there are rich capitalist with hordes of money. But there are plenty of generous, fair ones who treat their debs well. Gladly I work for one of them. And if I didn't I would find one or learn new skills and then find one. 
> 
Well, it is good that you, a person with self identified abilities and gifts, are able to be comfortable with your current situation.  Notwithstanding this, if you had less skills, were slower at your work, or had to take many days off work unexpectedly because of illness would your employer be as gracious?  Perhaps so, but this is not then a capitalist, as they would prefer to exchange you for a producer that works more efficiently.