I genuinely wonder how I’m gonna be a programmer long term because the industry has been so thoroughly infested with this nonsense.

God this is bleak. Also, I was refreshing my memory of recent Venezuelan history the other day and noted a concerning parallel. Part of the ongoing economic crisis in that country happened because of economic policies that completely hollowed out the economic basics and covered up for the damage with the money they were making from oil sales during a time when the war in Iraq had caused prices to spike to nearly an all-time high. When prices fell both Chavez and Maduro focused on protecting their position by covering up the problems through price and currency controls rather than fixing them, which led to spiralling inflation and massive food insecurity. I don’t know, something about godawful economic policies and corruption that get papered over by temporary and unsustainable economic conditions seems particularly worth remembering in light of the current situation.