Consumer goods have dropped in price, which is good for offsetting inequality. I think the allegory still holds in some other areas (off the top of my head: healthcare spending and renting versus owning your primary residence).
That said, income inequality is probably the much bigger source of unfairness these days.
Right now the skills you describe are definitely relevant. At work I'm regularly reviewing smelly changes, both from my own agents and others'. I'm wonder if this smell will always be present or if it will go away entirely, leaving the smell detector skills irrelevant.
> Reading comments like this really shines a light on why Youtube is as bad as it is
I have about as much say in YouTube as you do. In the org tree, the lowest common ancestor between me and YouTube is Sundar.
My original comment was a joke about the fact that someone felt as if they were "forced" to watch something. It was more of a comment on consumer attitude than YouTube itself. I'm sorry YT isn't working well for y'all. That said, expecting some grunt employee like me to feel personally responsible (or even "ashamed"??) is ridiculous.
The opinions stated here are my own, not those of my employer.
Google SWE
Previously: Twitter SWE Google Fiber SWE Google SRE UCB EECS