This type of crap should be mega illegal. I feel like I see this all the time. I don't know how you would ever prove beyond a reasonable doubt that they are actually "laying people off" tho which I presume means it's unfortunately gonna stick around as a method for companies to avoid severance which sucks.

Also, not for nothing but San Fran and Austin are definitely not two most expensive cities in the country. San Fran is kinda up there. Maybe like top 5 in some lists. I legitimately couldn't find Austin in a single one but I only checked up to like the top 25 or 30 cities.

Hiring freeze? I had an Apple recruiter reach out to me just a couple weeks ago. That's in EU though. They weren't happy that I was not willing to relocate for them.

I worry that tech bros who live in Texas will be way more susceptible to the ancap mind virus than they are now

Not if they keep up with their gerrymandering, it’d take a shit load of tech bros to counteract gerrymandering.

You think Tim Cook, billionaire CEO of a wildly anti-consumer company, gives a shit about anyone but himself?

I've got a bridge to sell you.

He is a capitalist billionaire which means he has more allegiance with $$$

I've met multiple out gay people who aren't LGBT friendly (or, more commonly, aren't 'BT' friendly) even without the profit motive of being a piece of shit like Tim Cook has.

Being LGBT certainly makes you more likely to take progressive attitudes, but it far from guarantees it.

Money and greed overrides any sort of class or queer solidarity

A capitalist is a capitalist first, a capitalist second, a capitalist third, and then everything else he is after that. He'd sell the blood of his fellow queers if he thought he could turn a profit.

And apple made, like, almost $100B profit last year. It's not like they can't make their crappy stuff if they don't lay off those 100 or so people.

First, I think it has more to do with OP reacting to the article they linked rather than searching for bad things Apple specifically has done. Second, we can talk about shitty Apple products or policies for ages, but this action in particular isn't like 'Oh no, the first-gen AR/VR goggles I bought for $4,000 aren't making the world literally Ready Player One'. No, this is (one of many) business decision that is directly fucking over their own employees in ways that are threatening to their entire livelihoods; 'Either uproot your lives and move hundreds of miles away to a place statistically less safe for most of you, or you're fired'

Sadly, there is a HUGE anti-union sentiment in tech, almost to a religious degree. I don't think the tech industry is smart enough to unionise, similarly to the video game industry, who have dealt with equal amounts of shit, yet still plug away in horrible conditions.

With that being said, while I think unions should exist in tech, I truly believe that the likes of Apple and co would gladly kill off 100k jobs and delay launches, if it means killing off union efforts. For it to be effective, it would need to be internationally recognised, have a large enough number of people to make mass firings near impossible without significant business harm, and be solely tied to minimum income equity.