4 ms·

I've seen enough stories about how gig workers struggle to actually turn a profit thanks to all the costs that get offloaded onto them, so I don't know that 'ge

I've seen enough stories about how gig workers struggle to actually turn a profit thanks to all the costs that get offloaded onto them, so I don't know that 'getting rid of a certain class of jobs' is automatically a bad thing.

floatrock 3y ago
Yeah, that's the tricky part that this seems to come down to. A decision was made that a slave-wage is undesirable/illegal, so the wage-slave job goes away. The argument is about do you believe people should decide for themselves that the wage-slave job is better than nothing, or should the government dictate that we don't tolerate wage-slaves by slave-wages here. It gets messy because the "people should decide" message shares the same outcome as "corporates get richer", so strong incentive for the latter to amplify the former. This whole story echos those union fights in our history textbooks.
edgyquant 3y ago
If these people didn’t turn a profit no one would do the jobs, as they’d be losing money in each order. They may not be happy with that profit, but it’s a profitable gig
NovemberWhiskey 3y ago
>how gig workers struggle to actually turn a profit thanks to all the costs that get offloaded onto them, Well, OK, I guess they could not do that then? McDonalds is hiring in NYC and paying a minimum of $16 an hour. I do feel for people in that situation, but they're just getting greased in the collision between, on the one side, techno-utopian companies that want to bring in automation ASAP to eliminate their jobs and, on the other, big labor that is threatened by the gig-economy model and believes the better outcome is just for the jobs not to exist. I'm pretty sure that the participants in the gig economy just wanted it to pay a bit better, rather than for it to get annihilated. I guess you find out who your friends really are.

4 ms·

I've seen enough stories about how gig workers struggle to actually turn a profit thanks to all the costs that get offloaded onto them, so I don't know that 'ge

by kevingadd 3y ago

floatrock 3y ago
Yeah, that's the tricky part that this seems to come down to. A decision was made that a slave-wage is undesirable/illegal, so the wage-slave job goes away. The argument is about do you believe people should decide for themselves that the wage-slave job is better than nothing, or should the government dictate that we don't tolerate wage-slaves by slave-wages here. It gets messy because the "people should decide" message shares the same outcome as "corporates get richer", so strong incentive for the latter to amplify the former. This whole story echos those union fights in our history textbooks.
edgyquant 3y ago
If these people didn’t turn a profit no one would do the jobs, as they’d be losing money in each order. They may not be happy with that profit, but it’s a profitable gig
NovemberWhiskey 3y ago
>how gig workers struggle to actually turn a profit thanks to all the costs that get offloaded onto them, Well, OK, I guess they could not do that then? McDonalds is hiring in NYC and paying a minimum of $16 an hour. I do feel for people in that situation, but they're just getting greased in the collision between, on the one side, techno-utopian companies that want to bring in automation ASAP to eliminate their jobs and, on the other, big labor that is threatened by the gig-economy model and believes the better outcome is just for the jobs not to exist. I'm pretty sure that the participants in the gig economy just wanted it to pay a bit better, rather than for it to get annihilated. I guess you find out who your friends really are.