> how wasteful would your work have to be before the personal satisfaction wasn't enough to outweigh the drain on society as a whole?
That's noble thought, but if the pay is high enough, you'd be plain dumb not to do it. Especially when there is someone else willing to ponce on the opportunity if you turn it down.
sorry, this is not how morality works in my worldview. "someone else willing to do it" is nowhere near sufficient to imply "morally acceptable for me to do it".
"someone's gonna get paid, might as well be me" isn't, IMO, a reasonable way to make decisions. sometimes the morally correct thing to do is to pass up a payday, because you don't think the thing being done is the right thing for the world.
If it is question about being paid well or not at all. Then I rather get paid well. The world isn't going to get better just because I refuse the work. In fact it might just get worse, since at least I can try to influence the product or at least half ass it in some way.
That's noble thought, but if the pay is high enough, you'd be plain dumb not to do it. Especially when there is someone else willing to ponce on the opportunity if you turn it down.