I used to work at a company with a 100 year old brand, and they took their perception seriously. Every few years, they conducted a brand audit and I got to attend an internal presentation on how they do it. Along the way, they mentioned that Facebook has the same brand perception as the IRS. This was about eight years ago.
So yeah, I can also see auditors not wanting to wear their IRS swag...especially during tax season.
I worked for the IRS in a country in Europe. When working there in IT, I did a back-of-the-envelope calculation of how many careers we spent, with career being average yearly salary *40yrs.
I also thought about how the money for my project came from coercion - the customer had no option to cancel the service we provided them, or to select a provider who gives them a better deal, or to simply manage their welfare and insurance by themselves (the biggest expenses of welfare state). My coworkers would talk about tax payers in a demeaning tone - as if they rightfully owed us something.
After a few months if thinking I followed the gut feeling and quit. I encourage anyone working for their “public sector” and especially tax departments to think about the morality of your work, and remember that life is like 80 years if you’re lucky, so spend it on productive and useful things - not the kind of parasitic work that happens at IRSs around the world
> My coworkers would talk about tax payers in a demeaning tone - as if they rightfully owed us something.
But... they do? Tax payers use public services every day.
I get what you’re saying but if someone opted to not pay taxes surely it wouldn’t be fair for them to drive on public roads, or use public transit? Or drink water provided by city-maintained pipes? How on earth would you enforce that? If someone wished to live a life where they used absolutely zero tax payer funded things how would they even start?
> I encourage anyone working for their “public sector” and especially tax departments to think about the morality of your work
Many years ago I worked for a local government authority. It’s honestly some of the most rewarding work I’ve done before or since. I created pages and backend tools for people to look up trash collection, how to vote, what’s going on at their local recreation centres, so on. All of those things played a part in creating community. And yes, they were paid for by taxes. Which meant no ads, no up sell, no invasive tracking, no monetisation to worry about. I could just make a tool that served people.
The tools I created are probably already long gone, but the community still exists. When I’m old I don’t think I’ll have the slightest regret about the work I did. The two years I spent at a startup, burning myself out to create a product that failed and has since vanished from the earth? I’ll regret that more.
The joys of not needing ads and tracking are very true. The way I try to live that, is setting up automatic $1/month donations to all and every podcast/blog/oss project, etc I wish to support. They don’t track me, and I ensure more content to my liking will be produced. I wish ad based business models didn’t work so well - hopefully people will wise up to it and reject it.
The flip side of what you speak of is the force and coercion required to fund all these nice things.
I’ll use my country as an example: a family father may earn €4600/month (a good salary indeed!) but after income tax and “employment fee” receive €2650. When they spend, they pay a 25% sales tax (VAT). This means he gets to spend about €1700 of the €4600 value he creates. (Source: https://www.ekonomifakta.se/Fakta/Skatter/Rakna-pa-dina-skat...)
So as a back of the envelope calculation, you could say that if a government project costs €2650x2, one “effective” expert slave labourer is used for it.
And the moral issue is this: these men (main tax funding group) must therefore, in order to fund their families, work more than otherwise, and not see their children. Their wives must often work too, and the obvious solution is to leave the kids in (government) daycare - which effectively is a daily abandonment trauma. The work I did for the government had a direct effect of children not seeing their fathers and mothers, but their upbringing being outsourced to the state. I think this is such a moral ugliness, I can have no part in it any more.
I wish there was a portion of the taxes, say 10%, that the citizen would have the option to allocate to the category of their choice. Every year on your tax return you would pick education or infrastrucure or military as the target of your taxes. I think it would help with the feeling.
Donations to public interest organizations works a bit like this. Part of the donation is removed from your revenue so it's like sending tax money directly to things you believe in.
Congrats man. I similarly decided never to work for any government or connected organization ever again when I realized all governments are criminal orgs comparable to the mafia, living off of theft and extortion, basically slavery ('taxation').
Thanks. While I had an uneasy feeling at the time, it was people on the internet who put words on what I did wrong, and I am grateful to them. These people are sadly getting banned and downvoted by the majority on pretty much every platform. In those moments I remember Socrates, who was sentenced to death for his heresy - but now lives forever as the greatest philosopher of all times.
Yep it is not easy to admit you were wrong and to have to make such drastic changes in your life. Especially not in the current climate. I had to do the same thing, and it is difficult, but also rewarding in a spiritual sense. Much respect to you, and good luck.
What is wrong with this site?! They aren't talking about popularity. They are talking about violence. They aren't saying that Facebook people are ashamed and trying to hide their affiliation. They are saying they think they'll get hurt because of where they work.
What can't we take this seriously? There was a right wing terror attack just days ago, rhetoric all over the internet is filled with imagery of violence and revolt and retribution. And all anyone wants to talk about is the spin directed in the other direction about who is culpable, and whether or not content moderation and censorship are the same thing, and whether or not it actually constituted a coup.
But, people got hurt and killed on Wednesday, and the same communities continue to threaten the same kind of thing. Is it so hard to believe that people at Facebook or Twitter or wherever, who are geeks just like us, are genuinely afraid right now?
> Is it so hard to believe that people at Facebook or Twitter or wherever, who are geeks just like us, are genuinely afraid right now?
The person you replied to didn't suggest otherwise.
You seem to be ranting at someone who is just pointing out that being associated with Facebook is much like being associated with the IRS... another very unpopular and potentially dangerous job.
Who could have foreseen that choosing to contribute to some of the most, if not the most, intentionally polarizing and toxic technology the world has ever seen may have consequences?
Obviously physical violence in reaction to non-physical action(s) is completely uncalled for. People shouldn’t be afraid to work for Google, Facebook and Twitter for fear of physical retribution. They should be utterly ashamed and embarrassed to though.
So yeah, I can also see auditors not wanting to wear their IRS swag...especially during tax season.