A farmer will put the animals' comfort and health and safety ahead of their own. They'll work long hours through heat waves and winter storms, get up in the middle of the night to check that everything is all right, spend every waking and sleeping moment worrying about the livestock, individually and collectively.

'course, the pig still gets eaten in the end.

You need to watch more PETA undercover videos.

there are thousands of chainsaws and rocket engines ready to take your place.

Really? So why does everyone complain about engineering shortage?

Because what they're really saying is that they don't want to pay more money.

By complaining about the "shortage" they encourage new entrants into the field and convince existing talent to accept lower wages.

It's purely marketing, IMO.

>convince existing talent to accept lower wages.

That seems like lousy marketing. If I'm told that something is constantly in a shortage my first thought isn't exactly to sell it for less.

Eh, you're right. I'm obviously not thinking clearly this morning.

Sorry, you're right, I should rethink my argument. Billion dollar businesses aren't made on chainsaws and rocket engines. They're mostly made in conference rooms by salespeople with capitol. So, identifying as a chainsaw or rocket engine is basically just an admitting that you're a tool willing to work for less than what the salespeople think what your labor is worth.

You aren't going to change the world as an IC. If you're really a 10x engineer, maybe put that 9x difference back into learning how to market yourself or a product, if you really want to make a difference.

You're not working for "less than what someone thinks your worth", you're working for a price set by the market and an assessment of what level of quality your work is.

A developer gets paid before the salespeople have anything to sell. It's up to the company and its salespeople to try to not lose money on their deal with their R&D people. Considering the context of the article (Google engineer) and how much people in that market get paid, making money after you pay them is a tall order. Most businesses fail.

>You're not working for "less than what someone thinks your worth", you're working for a price set by the market and an assessment of what level of quality your work is.

So what about that 1x engineer who negotiated for 50k more than you, even though your output is better than his. Your company isn't jumping to give you a raise. Is that just "the market"?

There are ~basically~ no employee shortages, only employee shortages at a given pay rate.

To justify the H1B and similar quotas so they can import more foreign born labor so they can pay labor less.