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That strikes me as an uncharitable reading of this article. The guys transporting appliances in a pickup truck are, in some sense, forced to do that to survive.

That strikes me as an uncharitable reading of this article. The guys transporting appliances in a pickup truck are, in some sense, forced to do that to survive. However, the author's point concerns the opportunity they are capitalising on. In this environment, one can start an appliance transport business with a truck and some strong men. The environment of the USA has many more barriers to entry, and that influences the types of enterprises that exist there.

082349872349872 6y ago
In the US, the truck and strong men exist, one just has to know where the local "day labour" hangout may be.
- oftenwrong 6y ago
  Those sorts of operations are generally not compliant with regulations. This would seem to reinforce the parent's point. While it is great to have low barriers to entry, it is not so great to sacrifice worker protections, and to depend on people living in precarious financial situations.
ff317 6y ago
They're inextricably linked, though. It's always much easier to start a small business in a relatively-unregulated environment, but that's because nearly zero thought or protection is being given to the drivers' or loaders' living wages, healthcare, eventual retirement, actual health (as in long-term occupational stress on the body), or even ability to be compensated for severe workplace injuries. All of the things we privileged Americans complain about in cases like Amazon's treatment of their warehouse and shipping workers are orders of magnitude worse, in practice, for most of these opportunistic workers in Ecuador.
- oftenwrong 6y ago
  That's a good point. I suppose in countries like the US there is already a middle ground in play: small businesses are often exempt from certain onerous regulations.
- codeadict 6y ago
  I lived in Ecuador, all these people will have retirement and healthcare thru the IES(https://www.iess.gob.ec/ https://www.iess.gob.ec/), equivalent to the US Social Security. It's not a perfect system but neither is US retirement if you don't have 401k or some kind of private retirement plan, the healthcare could be slow sometimes and you spend 30 mins to an hour to see the doctor but it works.

082349872349872 6y ago

In the US, the truck and strong men exist, one just has to know where the local "day labour" hangout may be.

oftenwrong 6y ago
Those sorts of operations are generally not compliant with regulations. This would seem to reinforce the parent's point. While it is great to have low barriers to entry, it is not so great to sacrifice worker protections, and to depend on people living in precarious financial situations.

ff317 6y ago

They're inextricably linked, though. It's always much easier to start a small business in a relatively-unregulated environment, but that's because nearly zero thought or protection is being given to the drivers' or loaders' living wages, healthcare, eventual retirement, actual health (as in long-term occupational stress on the body), or even ability to be compensated for severe workplace injuries. All of the things we privileged Americans complain about in cases like Amazon's treatment of their warehouse and shipping workers are orders of magnitude worse, in practice, for most of these opportunistic workers in Ecuador.

oftenwrong 6y ago
That's a good point. I suppose in countries like the US there is already a middle ground in play: small businesses are often exempt from certain onerous regulations.
codeadict 6y ago
I lived in Ecuador, all these people will have retirement and healthcare thru the IES(https://www.iess.gob.ec/ https://www.iess.gob.ec/), equivalent to the US Social Security. It's not a perfect system but neither is US retirement if you don't have 401k or some kind of private retirement plan, the healthcare could be slow sometimes and you spend 30 mins to an hour to see the doctor but it works.