Engineers (or at least engineering firms) also get rewards for exposure to tail risks. As do many other professions. I'm not convinced bankers are special in that regard.
I think the OP argues -- and I agree -- that Engineers and their Managers -- especially their Managers, given how decision making works in the Bay Area, should be punished too.
I don't see the issue: that is part of being an Engineer: lives and livelihood of people depend on your work "working." That is how it works in all Engineering fields. Somehow in software engineering we give the title and forget the responsibility.
On the other hand, in a lot of jobs, engineers are overruled and treated as monkey typists, so...
Example: At Boeing, Engineers were overruled on 737 Max, and passengers paid the price. Time someone pays for that, in this case FAA included.
tl;dr: "Somewhere between the janitor and the CEO, reasons stop mattering," # Steve Jobs (note: Rubicon is VP for him)
On the other hand, engineers are ultimately the people who implement whatever the management wants to do, so if they absolutely refuse to do some shady shit, they can't be overruled.
It's sort of the same as the question of whether soldiers should be held responsible for wars. There wouldn't be any wars if they all refused to fight. On the other hand, they are just carrying out orders. On a third hand, why the hell is "just carrying out orders" a good excuse for killing people? Why would anyone just "carry out the orders" without thinking about it themselves? Why should we be able to outsource our ethics? These are all questions that anarchists (the serious, intellectual variety), like to ask.
