It feels like 10 years ago, /r/cscareerquestions was full of people falling over each other to worship FAANG and their super high salaries. The tech field in general has always felt very full of chuds to me, or at the very best libertarians.
Maybe things are changing. This question was if the Big Beautiful bill would be good for software engineers.
Will Trumps big beautiful bill benefit software engineers?
Was reading up on the bill and came across this:
The bill would suspend the current amortization requirement for domestic R&D expenses and allow companies to fully deduct domestic research costs in the year incurred for tax years beginning January 1, 2025 and ending December 31, 2029.
That sounds fantastic for U.S based software engineers, am I reading that right?
Almost all of the answers are negative, with some even using a class analysis. One or two bad answers or course but still, if tech could gain some sort of class consciousness, and identify themselves with the working class instead of the petite bourgeois or labor aristocracy, there may be hope for them yet.
All the top answers I've seen so far:
mpaes98 says:
It will benefit software engineers ^at ^Palantir
Then all of the replies to this are insulting Palantir lol.
jarena009 says:
Well...US Corporate profits are currently up to $4T, and white collar/business professional jobs, especially in tech, are still down since 2023.
Meanwhile many of the major tech players are doing layoffs.
Do you think increased corporate profits, say to $4.4T or $4.6T, are going to result in more tech jobs?
Do you still believe in trickle down economics?
SenorSplashdamage says:
. And even if our wages went up as engineers, most of us still have family that will end up being impoverished by all the other effects, especially health care. The overall losses will exceed any gains in personal salaries.
randomuser194 says:
In theory will be beneficial in that way, you just have to ignore all of the negative factors to the overall economy because of the bill
Wallstreet says:
Wild to see the difference in this sub from just ~5 years ago to now.
Back then: People’s complaints about this sub was that a lot of people would post the 5 massive offers they received then they would just say: don’t compare yourself to these posts, you don’t have to grind leetcode for hours, 80k offer for a no name company is good enough
Vs now: this sub is just a bunch of posts about people struggling to find a job and now grinding leetcode is the norm, and if you’re not doing it, you’re the problem
mau5tron says:
No. Every major tech CEO sweet talked trump and threw a bunch of money at Trump's campaign with the promise to keep AI deregulated. Those tech companies are then going to keep dumping money into an unprofitable technology and call it an "R&D" expense, then lay off a bunch of engineers and still get their tax cut. And like clockwork, they'll buyback a bunch of stock to keep stock price at a steady level while the economy goes to shit. Trickle down economics has never worked bro. People are just hoarding at the top.
LeadVitamin13 says:
When companies and the rich save money they don't pass it on they hoard it. Its like thinking tax cuts will increase hiring when they don't. Maybe for a struggling company that need extra help but couldn't afford it not tech giants. If they can do a job with X amount of people why would you hire anymore just cause you got more money.
LeftcellInfiltrator says:
Yeah, it'll free up trillions for the booj to invest with. But you'll be programming robot jailers with the soul of Peter Tiel to whip Amazon indentured servants into being more productive instead of solving any real problems. This is already happening in research.
100%. I wonder if they were too loose with which states could join? And also the goal was too vague. They need member states ideologically committed to an alternate economic framework from the get go, instead of just a vague framework for trade deals. I'd like to think Russia could probably spearhead something new with the most tariffed countries or the ones who have pissed off the US the most recently, so like Iran, Yemen, North Korea, South Africa since they started that ICJ case, Cuba, those 3 AES in Africa, Vietnam, Venezuela, uh... Maybe Mexico since they seem pretty based recently.
I know they're poorer and less of the population than current BRICS, but that doesn't seem to have been super helpful for getting anything done and avoiding the financial domination of the US. Instead, maybe if they go into it with that goal from the get-go, work on it immediately with more ideological and committed anti-imperialist states, they could. China and Brazil joining would be great goals but only if they seemed interested in a move away from SWIFT and the dollar and could commit to through Presidential elections and such.