[OT]Re: not to belittle or anything . . .

[Kurt Wall]

On Tue, Dec 28, 2004 at 11:07:42AM +0800, Chong Yu Meng took 52 lines to write:
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> Kurt Wall wrote:
> |
> | At this point, I have darn little sympathy for anyone who's stayed on
> | at SCO. Some people are stupid; others are aggressivly stupid. Those that
> | have stayed on at (fia)SCO are aggressivly stupid.
> 
> This is a very interesting moral dilemma you brought up, Kurt. I'm going
> to play Devil's advocate here and propose this (hypothetical) scenario:

Okay.

> Person A is a barely competent pre-sales engineer with a lot of
> financial liabilities (say an expensive car and a house -- which in
> Singapore is *extremely* expensive, not sure about the USA). He knows
> that there is a high possibility that he will not be able to find a job
> with equivalent pay. Following his "moral compass" would mean giving up
> his lifestyle and a lot of the comforts he has grown used to. Does he
> give it all up for an abstract concept like ethics ? Staying in an
> unethical company would be a small sin compared to the hardships he will
> subject his family to.

Houses and cars are cheaper here, modulo the size of the house and the
kind of car. If Person A is living beyond his means, he's already placed
himself and his family and his belongings at risk, but that's not the issue
here, so I only mention it in passing. 

Person A's ethics are not abstract: he's made them concrete by valuing 
material possessions and money over (what I, at least, consider) right
behavior. If SCO's scam pays off, then it's dirty money. Integrity might
not keep you warm at night, I'll grant you, but it sure makes it easier 
to live inside your own skin. 

> Of course, in cases like this, the gravy train will inevitably, and
> sometimes very quickly, come to a screeching halt. But what's the harm
> in sitting out the ride as long as it lasts?

I wouldn't, _prima facie_, fail to hire someone who'd worked at SCO
because they'd worked there. But I would ask some hard questions about 
why they stayed on after the nature of the beast became apparent because,
if nothing else, having done so calls their judgement into question.

Kurt
-- 
The more laws and order are made prominent, the more thieves and
robbers there will be.
	-- Lao Tsu