Ask HN: Engineers, don't you feel like pawns?
It&#x27;s impossible to earn a high income without others taking a majority of what you &quot;bring in.&quot;<p>Engineers get hammered on equity by Founders, who get hammered by Venture Capitalists, who hand over most of their profits to Institutional funds. It&#x27;s a food chain thing, but I don&#x27;t think it&#x27;s worth getting that upset about.<p>But then again, Institutional Funds put billions at risk to into Venture Capital funds who put millions at risk to founders who take on more risk, and a boat loat more stress and hassle (usually) than their employees.<p>Software salespeople need to bring in 4-5x of what they cost. Lawyers and consultants are often tasked with bringing in 3-4x their cost. Why should engineers be any different?<p>My granddad told me a story a few years ago about a guy who was a fantastically successful oil trader. A buy the whole tanker oil trader kinda guy. One of the reasons he&#x27;d been so successful was that he always tried to leave a bit of margin there for other people.<p>I work as a recruiter. I know exactly how much money I&#x27;ve made my company and how much I&#x27;ve personally been paid. I could make more by starting out on my own. But I&#x27;d also take on a lot of hassle that I don&#x27;t really want to bother with at this point in my life. As long as it remains a fairly reasonable trade, I&#x27;ll be fine with it.