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I'm becoming more and more convinced as time goes on that our new technologies only look at one side of the equation: cost. They seem to be doing little or not
by zackmorris 8y ago
I'm becoming more and more convinced as time goes on that our new technologies only look at one side of the equation: cost. They seem to be doing little or nothing to increase incomes. So I must ask myself, are these really technologies if they don't provide utility to all players?
Across almost all industries, people used to be able to provide for their families, or at the very least support themselves on a 40 hour work week. Now we have Uber and Lyft decreasing the cost of taxi rides to perhaps half their previous levels. That's nice for clients, but they're also lowering wages to perhaps half or even a quarter of their previous levels. That missing quarter is where executive and corporate profits come from.
Is there a term for a company that focuses on incomes first? Is there a way to program that into a corporate charter, to encourage gig companies like Upwork to maximize incomes? Could we use private means to optimize the economy for incomes?
For a lot of reasons, the federal government has been crippled in its ability to do the simplest things like raise the minimum wage or even give unions equal legal footing with corporations. That worked to pump debt into the economy for a decade or three but now we're seeing strife in the forms of increasing addiction, suicide rates, delayed marriage and childbirth, etc. It's one thing to be against unions and another to be against the general working population, which is what this wealth inequality is becoming. We're reaching an endgame here that is not sustainable - that may lead to widespread civil disobedience at the very least, and probably violence or even revolution eventually. What can be done?
- leetcrew 8y ago> Is there a term for a company that focuses on incomes first? perhaps a worker coop? [0] such an organization is not explicitly focused on maximizing worker incomes, but it seems like a likely outcome. [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Worker_cooperative https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Worker_cooperative