Fair. I have been a Linux hobbyist for decades. Up until being replaced by AI a year or two ago, I worked tech support and tech billing/contract roles for infrastructure and software giants. I have zero interest in perpetuating purportedly legal but sketchy billing schemes, using or selling AI, or enabling any foreign (or local) genocides or surveillance states with my work. I’d rather make less money and have my ethics a little less shattered.
The main reasons I work are to learn new skills and to get health insurance and money. I can learn skills on my own, I’m doing okay on money because my hobbies are mostly free or pay me a little bit. It’s mostly the threat of financial destitution, homelessness, and dying in a gutter because I caught a cold without health insurance that have kept me working full time, even when my freelancing was a big portion of my income. If we can solve the healthcare issue, everything will change for the better. I truly believe that.
If we can solve the healthcare issue, everything will change for the better. I truly believe that.
Exactly the reason the right have been fighting healthcare coverage so hard sor so long; they know that chaining your health insurance to the anchor around your neckyour job, it makes you less likely to leave.
Hell, assuming your company gets bought midyear, you can experience the joys of not having health insurance while you technically do have it! I had a few weeks this year effectively without insurance because the massive corpo fucknuggets that bought my comparatively tiny company weren’t competent enough to have the new insurance company (that they use for themselves) loaded with all of our info, so we got left in the lurch while being told for over a week that “they were loading our data now” (a week into the process) or they “had escalated the problem to the highest management” a full 5 days and a weekend before they started sending out paper letters with the info (that still didn’t fucking work for 2 days).
That sounds nightmarish, but not surprising in the least. The gap isn’t a big deal to them because they can just fix it later. If that inconveniences you, they’d like to kindly invite you to die of preventable diseases curled up under cardboard behind your nearest dumpster.
A former employer of mine once sent a notice that a 401k match had been miscalculated and they owed me extra money and they would deposit it in my account. I no longer worked there and had already transferred my 401k. The fee for the 401k company to cut a check was more than the amount my employer paid me, so it’s essentially just stuck there. They did their due diligence, right?
My last employer was better about this. Even though they were an evil megacorp, the benefits were on point and they had swarms of helpful people to explain and assist if you needed to use something. If I didn’t care about how my work effected other people, it would have been a dream.
I’m feeling more and more unity around the idea that the average person deserves a better deal than what we’re getting. I hope we can channel this class consciousness for good.
Fair. I have been a Linux hobbyist for decades. Up until being replaced by AI a year or two ago, I worked tech support and tech billing/contract roles for infrastructure and software giants. I have zero interest in perpetuating purportedly legal but sketchy billing schemes, using or selling AI, or enabling any foreign (or local) genocides or surveillance states with my work. I’d rather make less money and have my ethics a little less shattered.
The main reasons I work are to learn new skills and to get health insurance and money. I can learn skills on my own, I’m doing okay on money because my hobbies are mostly free or pay me a little bit. It’s mostly the threat of financial destitution, homelessness, and dying in a gutter because I caught a cold without health insurance that have kept me working full time, even when my freelancing was a big portion of my income. If we can solve the healthcare issue, everything will change for the better. I truly believe that.
Exactly the reason the right have been fighting healthcare coverage so hard sor so long; they know that chaining your health insurance to
the anchor around your neckyour job, it makes you less likely to leave.Hell, assuming your company gets bought midyear, you can experience the joys of not having health insurance while you technically do have it! I had a few weeks this year effectively without insurance because the massive corpo fucknuggets that bought my comparatively tiny company weren’t competent enough to have the new insurance company (that they use for themselves) loaded with all of our info, so we got left in the lurch while being told for over a week that “they were loading our data now” (a week into the process) or they “had escalated the problem to the highest management” a full 5 days and a weekend before they started sending out paper letters with the info (that still didn’t fucking work for 2 days).
That sounds nightmarish, but not surprising in the least. The gap isn’t a big deal to them because they can just fix it later. If that inconveniences you, they’d like to kindly invite you to die of preventable diseases curled up under cardboard behind your nearest dumpster.
A former employer of mine once sent a notice that a 401k match had been miscalculated and they owed me extra money and they would deposit it in my account. I no longer worked there and had already transferred my 401k. The fee for the 401k company to cut a check was more than the amount my employer paid me, so it’s essentially just stuck there. They did their due diligence, right?
My last employer was better about this. Even though they were an evil megacorp, the benefits were on point and they had swarms of helpful people to explain and assist if you needed to use something. If I didn’t care about how my work effected other people, it would have been a dream.
I’m feeling more and more unity around the idea that the average person deserves a better deal than what we’re getting. I hope we can channel this class consciousness for good.