Re: GPL vs. sweatshops (was Re: Bias)

On Wed, 12 Jun 2002 10:07:40 -0400 (EDT), "Deven T. Corzine"
<[email protected]> wrote:

>On Tue, 11 Jun 2002, John Alvord wrote:
>
>> >Well, considering many Open Source programmers donate their time for free, 
>> >it stands to reason that ZERO is indeed undercompensation.  They may do it 
>> >of their own free will, but it remains true that volunteers don't get paid 
>> >what their efforts are worth.
>> 
>> Clearly, though, people doing that work feel compensated in some way,
>> else why would they continue? Maybe, for them, "pay" is not the sole
>> measure of recompense.
>
>True enough, but "undercompensation" tends to imply monetary terms, and in 
>monetary terms, volunteers are clearly undercompensated.  Sure, they may 
>find it beneficial or rewarding -- if they do, and also get paid, does that 
>suddenly make them "overcompensated"?
>
>I think it was pretty clear from context that I was confining my remarks in 
>this case to (monetary) payment -- that's why I included the comment about 
>"volunteers don't get paid what their efforts are worth"...

In my experience no one gets paid what their efforts are worth except
for Bill Gates.

Also in my experience people get many compensations beyond monetary in
any endeavor. Comradeship, sense of accomplishment, pride, scratching
an itch... By concentrating on the monetary aspects you ignore the
aspects of work which are important motivations. These aspects are
extremely important in the open source world. If you ignore them, you
can't understand that world.

Even in the salaried world I see people that stick with jobs long
beyond what can be explained in pure monetary terms. I have left high
paying (six figure) jobs because the management was unpleasant,
because they wanted me to relocate, I forsaw the work ending. [Ah my
short Apple career...] And I have stuck with jobs because the people
were nice, the work was challenging and the managers excellent, even
though there were higher paying jobs a block away.

Ignore non-monetary compensation and you cannot understand the real
world of work.

john alvord

john alvord