Industries you wouldn't work in

[The Brain]

I have a hard time seeing myself working in tobacco or gambling. Arms would have to be military (I think Sweden should have a military defense, and they need arms) or hunting, I don't want to help make civilian handguns for nutters and criminals (handguns for police would be fine, but my guess is that no handgun maker only makes police weapons). I would never work for the Catholic church (not a huge fan of pedophile rings), but many religious organizations would be fine.

[Threviel]

In my line of work, embedded software development, there's only one big employer in my town. They make network surveillance equipment, big customers are Turkey, Turkmenistan, Belarus and so on. B and C level dictatorships that don't have the capability themselves to build the equipment.

I didn't even bother contacting them when I was unemployed a year ago, I do not want to work with that crap. I'd rather work at Volvo in Gothenburg even though it's an hour longer drive.

[merithyn]

I'm surprised private health insurance didn't make the list, if I'm honest. I know plenty of people who put my industry right up there with alcohol, tobacco, and gambling. For plenty of the companies in the industry, that's not far off.

Arms, gambling, and fossil fuels for me.

[Sheilbh]

I'm surprised private health insurance didn't make the list, if I'm honest. I know plenty of people who put my industry right up there with alcohol, tobacco, and gambling. For plenty of the companies in the industry, that's not far off.

Probably my bias/perception from the UK - my experience of private healthcare is for things like physio.

Arms, gambling, and fossil fuels for me.

Same. I also don't think I could work in tobacco, or big tech.

[celedhring]

My mother works in private health insurance 

I'd say private insurers are orders of magnitude less evil in Euroland than their yank counterparts, mostly because you can't be too predatory when your customers have a public "free" alternative.

[Tamas]

I once applied to an online gambling company, I thought I could handle it. The people on the phone interview sounded really nice and they seemed quite eager to see me in person but after learning they were running online gambling sites in Africa (Nigeria IIRC), I just couldn't stomach it and declined the second interview.

[celedhring]

As I said, I worked in advertising back in the time, it's an evil cynical industry and I hated every single day I was in it (but that was at the heart of the recession and I indeed needed the money). Bill Hicks had the truth of it.

There are some "ethical marketers" out there, though, but their work is pretty niche.

[The Larch]

In tech you don't really have to go big to find ethical wrongdoings. A friend of mine moved to Ireland for work and found his first job in a start-up there, so he thought it'd be a cool environment to work at, as the place had all the cool bells and whistles of the sector, but it turned out that their star product was a highly intrusive embebbed software for online advertising directed at the Indian market. After a few months he decided he'd rather work somewhere else.

[Iormlund]

Went with gambling, big tech, and tobacco.  All three industries rely on hooking vulnerable people and then milking them dry without regard to the wellbeing of the cows.

Same for me.

[Tamas]

What do we mean by "big tech"? I worked for IBM and I don't feel dirty for it.

[The Larch]

What do we mean by "big tech"? I worked for IBM and I don't feel dirty for it.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_and_the_Holocaust

[fromtia]

I imagine, to an extent that there are ethical questions for most people in whatever industry they end up making a living in. We all have to make a living though, so we are probably best advised to not spend too much time fretting. Gambling seems fairly egregious for the obvious reasons. Firearms, health insurance in the US is certainly a borderline scam. Meat packing, eggs and so on. I eat animals, but I do think how we treat animals is a serious question.

I haven't had a drink in 11 years and I'm pretty careful about my diet - probably one of the key factors in minimizing ones risk of the big metabolic diseases. In spite of those facts I make a good living at the high end of the restaurant industry persuading people to order that very expensive steak and the wine and booze to go with, it's often pretty clear that the customers would be better advised to drastically change their diet and take an extended break from drinking alcohol.

[Zanza]

I work in the automotive industry. I feel a certain dilemma between my personal convictions that large cars are bad for climate, inner city congestion, dangerous for pedestrians and cyclists etc. but are the cash cows consumers desire and which pay my salary.

[Eddie Teach]

Cars are great. I hope you don't lose too much sleep.

[Iormlund]

We sell a lot of alpha (tall) variants, even for low end segments. I feel that's a failure of regulators, though.

Another interesting angle is the protected status companies like ours have. On one hand it seems wrong that automakers enjoy privileges over other businesses. On the other hand, the sad reality is that these plants are the pillars of the regional economy. Few will notice if Pepe's barber shop closes down. But if an OEM leaves town, the whole area might become a ghost town. And that means even more people moving to Madrid and Barcelona, which is bad any way you look at it (environmentally, socially, politically).