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The fact that you're bing down voted is beyond me. My wife describes engineers as 'smartdumb'. We're super smart at figuring out technical solutions that enab

The fact that you're bing down voted is beyond me. My wife describes engineers as 'smartdumb'. We're super smart at figuring out technical solutions that enable things like social media, ridesharing and short term rentals. But we're either willfully ignorant or just plain dumb about the second order effects on society. And you know what you call it when people discuss the social good? Politics. That very thing that coincidentally we're not supposed to talk about on this site.

deleted 7y ago
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mkane848 7y ago
Seeing people say things like "Simple competition sorts it out" as if any complex problem can be answered like that. We should really know better, given our field. Also interesting that basically anyone saying anything mildly critical of capitalism is getting downvoted without much response
- urbanjunkie 7y ago
  > Also interesting that basically anyone saying anything mildly critical of capitalism is getting downvoted without much response Are you new here?
- weberc2 7y ago
  I’m open to thoughtful, constructive criticisms of capitalism. Mostly what I see is “capitalism allows for some to slip through the cracks, so let’s burn it all to the ground and start over with system that has only ever failed catastrophically (or in the words of its proponents, ‘has never truly been tried before’)”.
  - gerbilly 7y ago
    I see literally no-one one this site suggesting we go to full communism, if that's what you're implying. Carefully regulated capitalism should do fine. This is obviously not easy to achieve.
Ididntdothis 7y ago
On the Gervais principle most engineers are somewhere between the clueless and the losers. This explains a lot of the behavior.
ilaksh 7y ago
I don't really think that engineers can't figure out or see the second order effects of apps like Uber or DoorDash. Its very clear. Large numbers of people are operating without benefits. What I think is happening as far as the downvotes is not dependent on the person's field but rather their class or group identification as well as a certain portion of people who are actually worried about maintaining the 'independent' part of this stuff (though that is misguided for things like Uber). Some people don't understand the perspective or plight of gig workers because they identify as being part of a different segment of society, which precludes them from taking on that other perspective.
- corebit 7y ago
  "Large numbers of people are operating without benefits." You're attributing lack of benefits to work situations and employement agreements instead of unjust government distortion in markets and inefficient regulation.

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mkane848 7y ago

Seeing people say things like "Simple competition sorts it out" as if any complex problem can be answered like that. We should really know better, given our field. Also interesting that basically anyone saying anything mildly critical of capitalism is getting downvoted without much response

urbanjunkie 7y ago
> Also interesting that basically anyone saying anything mildly critical of capitalism is getting downvoted without much response Are you new here?
weberc2 7y ago
I’m open to thoughtful, constructive criticisms of capitalism. Mostly what I see is “capitalism allows for some to slip through the cracks, so let’s burn it all to the ground and start over with system that has only ever failed catastrophically (or in the words of its proponents, ‘has never truly been tried before’)”.
- gerbilly 7y ago
  I see literally no-one one this site suggesting we go to full communism, if that's what you're implying. Carefully regulated capitalism should do fine. This is obviously not easy to achieve.

Ididntdothis 7y ago

On the Gervais principle most engineers are somewhere between the clueless and the losers. This explains a lot of the behavior.

ilaksh 7y ago

I don't really think that engineers can't figure out or see the second order effects of apps like Uber or DoorDash. Its very clear. Large numbers of people are operating without benefits. What I think is happening as far as the downvotes is not dependent on the person's field but rather their class or group identification as well as a certain portion of people who are actually worried about maintaining the 'independent' part of this stuff (though that is misguided for things like Uber). Some people don't understand the perspective or plight of gig workers because they identify as being part of a different segment of society, which precludes them from taking on that other perspective.

corebit 7y ago
"Large numbers of people are operating without benefits." You're attributing lack of benefits to work situations and employement agreements instead of unjust government distortion in markets and inefficient regulation.