Real rebels pay their taxes - Nils Norman Haukås - NDC Oslo 2020

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Is it ethical to invest time into learning and using technologies from companies that pay little or no taxes? Examples of such tax-avoiding companies are not that hard to come by, for example we have companies such as Facebook, Google, Amazon, Apple and Microsoft. Examples of technologies and services offered by these companies are React, Kubernetes, Amazon Web Services, the App Store and Typescript. As developers we have a ton of delightful technologies to leverage as we try to achieve planet-scale disruption.
But if you and I pay our taxes, why shouldn’t these companies do so as well? Why should we spend our free time reading their documentation, and spend our free labour building upon their open source code? We are arguably enabling these tax avoiding monoliths, that will stop at nothing to increase their shareholder value.
With this talk I want to inspire action, not "fear, uncertainty and doubt" (also called FUD). We are developers and we love to create. In contrast to other fields, we truly own the means of production. I'll argue that software is political because it affects our society so deeply. We need to wisen up on ethics. And we need to be mindful about the how and why of choosing, building and governing technologies.
This talk will introduce you to:
- The basics of ethics.
- The basics of economic value.
- The basics of taxes.
- Key ethical issues related to software development.
- Working code examples, from which I'll argue how all developers can improve the state of ethics in software development.

[@rngesus8057]

afaik tax evasion is illegal, i think you meant tax avoidance?

[@nilsnormanhaukas4644]

Hi! Thanks for the comment. I now see that I've used the terms interchangeably without correctly defining their difference. I should have clarified that arguably all the GAFAM companies engage in tax avoidance, and some of it could be argued to be proper tax evasion. A case in point, would be when the IRS decided to take Microsoft to court: www.propublica.org/article/the-irs-decided-to-get-tough-against-microsoft-microsoft-got-tougher

[@nilsnormanhaukas4644]

Is my talk political? I've replied to some commenters about this and thought I could make a free standing comment as well.
This talk was submitted under ethics in software development. I talk about ethics, values, taxes and how the technologies we choose to use ultimately affect society, and I make my arguments based on academic and journalistic sources. So, I guess it all boils down to whether you think software exists outside of society, or if you think that software is deeply embedded in a society that it affects in good and bad ways. Should we developers simply follow orders and push buttons, or do we have ethical responsibilities? For me, I love to code as much as anyone and I strive to consider the ethical implications of how my work might affect society.

[@AlfredoInTheWorld]

Do you really think the problem is the corporations that, following stipulated laws, don't pay taxes? Why does the law allow such loopholes? Your presentation is well done, kudos on that. However, I get a sense you favor socialist ideals. And that's a bit alarming since this is a technical conference.

[@nilsnormanhaukas4644]

You bring up interesting points. I would argue that tech isn't elevated above politics, because what we build and what we build it with affects society so greatly. More and more devs are realizing this. For instance, if we developers build solutions that automate or help governmental functions I would argue that we should be mindful of the ethical implications of what were building, not just follow orders.
Yes, I'm in Norway where we pay taxes to fund free healthcare for everyone so I and most of the population subscribe to social democratic ideals. But even a staunch conservative would have to agree that it's hurting the free market competition when the largest corporations simply have so much more capital to squash their competition, due to rampant tax optimizations. Even if it's legal doesn't make it ethically right. And countries are trying to collaborate internationally for better laws to close loopholes.

[@naswinger]

this is hardly a dev talk and entirely a political statement

[@nilsnormanhaukas4644]

Hi! I submitted this talk under ethics in software development. So, on the day I presented this talk no one was upset that it wasn't deeply technical. Is it political? Well, I talk a lot about how the dev tools we choose to use might ultimately affect society, and I make my arguments based on academic and journalistic sources. I guess it all boils down to whether you think software is elevated above politics, or if you think that it's deeply embedded in a society that it affects in good and bad ways. If you believe developers affect society with the software we build then yes I think this is a talk for devs.