I doubt you can find a quote of rms where he would tell that writing software
is not a "real job". And "factory worker" is just an example. Nobody ever
pretended that we *all* have to be factory workers.
I do not get how earning little money could be unethical. I certainly believe
that inequalities are to be fought. But inequalities do not exist because
people with low salaries want them. They exist because some people always
want to earn more and vote in this way. They put that above any
social/ethical principle and, if they are good at writing software, they may
end up writing proprietary software, pretending they cannot make a living
otherwise. I am not saying one cannot earn a lot with some other IT jobs that
do not involve writing proprietary software. I do for instance. However, Bill
Gates and Steve Jobs, that some take as examples to imitate, could only
become billionaires through unethical activities. Making such absurd amounts
of money through free software looks impossible.
As for the use of the technology/products, it is another debate. The tool is
neutral. Even guns are useful to defend a country. Of course, there are bad
usages too. Some technology/products have usage restrictions: you need a
license to have a gun, you need to be an adult to buy alcohol, etc. Those
restrictions were voted. Who am I to impose such restrictions? In the case of
software they would be DRMs. Freedom 0 rightfully states that a software with
usage restrictions is non-free.
The academic world is not (directly) "responsible of making money". It is
responsible of making knowledge and teaching it. You can consider that
"making money" is more important. I have nothing against people making money
when they deserve it by positively contributing to the society. I consider
that writing proprietary software is a negative contribution to society. It
is denying the control the users deserves on their own work. Society could
even decide to make proprietary software illegal in the same way that it made
some polluting manufacturing processes illegal.
