5 ms·

Chances are that with taxes, cost of an internet connection (especially if your bandwidth is capped), cost of a computer, etc, they're probably getting paid neg

by ojbyrne 18y ago

Chances are that with taxes, cost of an internet connection (especially if your bandwidth is capped), cost of a computer, etc, they're probably getting paid negative amounts.

gaius 18y ago
We can presuppose that these are sunk costs. One example is the man who does this instead of playing online poker. He'd be online doing something anyway.
- netcan 18y ago
  Yes that's how it will seem so long as it's not too big. Just like they present certain college jobs under some obscure classification that means they are not bound to minimum wage. Or mailbox stuffers. Down here they advertise those jobs as a way to make sure you get your daily walk & get paid a little. If it becomes a serious channel to a labor market, it might become a way of bypassing Chinas $144 minimum wage. (BTW, There are quite a few internet sweatshops going already with 12X7 weeks @ $144 p/m)
  - rms 18y ago
    Would be curious for a link to an internet sweatshop...
    - netcan 18y ago
      http://www.sed.manchester.ac.uk/idpm/research/publications/wp/di/di_wp32.htm http://www.sed.manchester.ac.uk/idpm/research/publications/w... Seems sort of silly at this point. But with enough demand for more unskilled labour online, it might become something more substantial. From the paper: " The rather wobbly-legged best guesses for 2008 are that 400,000 gold farmers earning an average US$145 per month produced a global market worth US$500m; but we could easily more than double the latter to over US$1bn. There are probably 5-10m consumers of gold farming services. "
  - akd 18y ago
    Mailbox stuffing is a great idea for me actually. I walk every day past roughly 100 mailboxes and would stuff a sheet of paper in each for 1 cent if I could do it without slowing down.
rms 18y ago
Most people doing this are English speakers that spend their proceeds at amazon.com. The low wage doesn't feel so bad when you are slowly working your way to a 1080p plasma. $4/hour is about the rate an experienced turker gets.

by ojbyrne 18y ago

Chances are that with taxes, cost of an internet connection (especially if your bandwidth is capped), cost of a computer, etc, they're probably getting paid negative amounts.

gaius 18y ago

We can presuppose that these are sunk costs. One example is the man who does this instead of playing online poker. He'd be online doing something anyway.

netcan 18y ago
Yes that's how it will seem so long as it's not too big. Just like they present certain college jobs under some obscure classification that means they are not bound to minimum wage. Or mailbox stuffers. Down here they advertise those jobs as a way to make sure you get your daily walk & get paid a little. If it becomes a serious channel to a labor market, it might become a way of bypassing Chinas $144 minimum wage. (BTW, There are quite a few internet sweatshops going already with 12X7 weeks @ $144 p/m)
- rms 18y ago
  Would be curious for a link to an internet sweatshop...
  - netcan 18y ago
    http://www.sed.manchester.ac.uk/idpm/research/publications/wp/di/di_wp32.htm http://www.sed.manchester.ac.uk/idpm/research/publications/w... Seems sort of silly at this point. But with enough demand for more unskilled labour online, it might become something more substantial. From the paper: " The rather wobbly-legged best guesses for 2008 are that 400,000 gold farmers earning an average US$145 per month produced a global market worth US$500m; but we could easily more than double the latter to over US$1bn. There are probably 5-10m consumers of gold farming services. "
- akd 18y ago
  Mailbox stuffing is a great idea for me actually. I walk every day past roughly 100 mailboxes and would stuff a sheet of paper in each for 1 cent if I could do it without slowing down.

rms 18y ago

Most people doing this are English speakers that spend their proceeds at amazon.com. The low wage doesn't feel so bad when you are slowly working your way to a 1080p plasma. $4/hour is about the rate an experienced turker gets.