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I think it's similar to the very beginning of industrialization, when factory owners were exploiting large numbers of entirely fungible unskilled labourers. Ope

I think it's similar to the very beginning of industrialization, when factory owners were exploiting large numbers of entirely fungible unskilled labourers. Opening the gates to the factory in the morning and admitting as many desperate people as needed, paying them with the bare minimum necessary to their survival. And those who became sick were simply replaced by others. Today the factory has been replaced by the mega-corporation, and the "workers" are now smaller businesses and private entrepreneurs or individual producers. Their job is now skilled and personal, but the offer is so vast that each of them is fungible anyway. The platform, which acts as a gateway, has no obligations towards them and can replace them at any time (and therefore has complete power over them). Historically this situation has been solved by imposing limits to the freedom of factory owners and allowing workers to unionize, to restore a balance of power between the capitalists and the masses of workers. This has not been done yet with the new internet economy.

lazide 3y ago
Mainly because the internet allows people to compete with you without a physical presence at time of sale, which breaks almost all countermeasures or ability to reduce harms in a specific area. For Uber, airports were about the only ones able to apply any real pressure.
cbsmith 3y ago
> Today the factory has been replaced by the mega-corporation, and the "workers" are now smaller businesses and private entrepreneurs or individual producers. Those factories were owned by companies. I don't think things have really changed. > Historically this situation has been solved by imposing limits to the freedom of factory owners and allowing workers to unionize, to restore a balance of power between the capitalists and the masses of workers. This has not been done yet with the new internet economy. In more recent history, the trend has been to reduce those limits, and generally remove whatever leverage labour has. Saying "it has not been done yet" seriously understates it.

lazide 3y ago

Mainly because the internet allows people to compete with you without a physical presence at time of sale, which breaks almost all countermeasures or ability to reduce harms in a specific area. For Uber, airports were about the only ones able to apply any real pressure.

cbsmith 3y ago

> Today the factory has been replaced by the mega-corporation, and the "workers" are now smaller businesses and private entrepreneurs or individual producers. Those factories were owned by companies. I don't think things have really changed. > Historically this situation has been solved by imposing limits to the freedom of factory owners and allowing workers to unionize, to restore a balance of power between the capitalists and the masses of workers. This has not been done yet with the new internet economy. In more recent history, the trend has been to reduce those limits, and generally remove whatever leverage labour has. Saying "it has not been done yet" seriously understates it.