Compromising principles for materials and status.
A sad portion of people I know seem to have sold their souls in exchange for the opportunity to move up the corporate ladder. They've become people they vowed never to be, spouting managerial nonsense, providing politically-correct non-answers to genuine questions, and blindly parroting the priorities of upper management in hopes of coming into their good graces without actually listening to what they're saying or thinking about the long-term consequences of actions.
It's depressing watching others face a rather unattractive fork in the road. To the left is the principled path, the one where you stand up for what is right and defy the corporatism while sacrificing long-term earning potential while still possessing some shred of dignity. To the right lies the sell-out path, the one where you bow to the faceless machine that is the company after being promised more money and more status. The right-most path is almost always chosen given its alluring benefits; the left-most path is almost always poorly traveled, with some travelers even coming back after realizing it was too tough and going down the sell-out path, dejected and broken and beaten.
Money and status are the obvious answers.
Forgoing principles is incredibly easy in favor of money—the sight of the extra greenery turns rational people into professional mental gymnasts willing to do back handsprings over their values and morals in order to stick the moolah-laden landing. It's sad and worrisome; under what other circumstances would these people so quickly relieve themselves of the supposed-to-be-tight handcuffs and boundaries that are their principles? Do principles even mean anything if they're not rigorously followed? Under what situations can you drop them? Life or death? Major discomfort? Minor discomfort? The drop of a hat? Every person has a different answer.
The same ease exists with status. Others forget what happened when there's a shiny new title next to a name or fast car parked outside. And yet, it's happily accepted. Why is status so often correlated to power? Why can't it be tied into values? The person who is unwavering with their values in the face of attractive benefits is of some non-zero amount of status, regardless of the power they hold in a community.
Selling out surely has to be worth it at some point. Is an extra 1% on an annual raise worth selling out? Absolutely not. 10%? Now we're talking. $1 million? Find me someone who wouldn't find a way to justify that. Long-term costs must be considered against the benefit, both from the giving and receiving ends.
Continually violating values makes each subsequent violation less impactful to the psyche, thus making each more likely to happen. A dangerous precedent, and eventually habit if committed enough, is then formed. The floor that the mental gymnastics are done on is no longer concrete with zero rebound, but rather a bouncy springboard that propels the fallacious reasoning to new heights of self-deception and back-patting.
The returns can still be incredibly beneficial. An entrepreneur who sold a company for millions can more easily go back and start another, invest in others, or simply spend it as they see fit, which still helps society. My compromising can allow for an earlier retirement, resulting in greater net happiness for myself and those I spend time with.
As with everything in life, the value comes down to a cost-benefit analysis. How much value is placed upon principles? How much value will be gained if those are compromised (and how likely is that value to actually be realized)?
Ethan's Fourth Law states:
Any entity that does not explicitly state they will not sell out will eventually sell out, where an entity can be an individual or organization
Harvey Dent's famous line is similar:
You either die a hero or live long enough to see yourself become the villain
Some examples of companies selling out:
A culture change, one that starts at the individual level, is required. Those who resist the temptations of money and status in favor of their principles should be encouraged, not put down or punished. Raise them up in public, laud them as heroes, paint them in a positive light, make the bold claim that principles—while not always absolute—are not to be flexible when inconvenient or costly.