4 ms·

Yeaaaaaah, remember when the bulk of US manufacturing and industry was offshored a few decades ago and pundits were falling all over themselves to explain how w

Yeaaaaaah, remember when the bulk of US manufacturing and industry was offshored a few decades ago and pundits were falling all over themselves to explain how we were transitioning to a "service economy"? Well this is what a service economy looks like.

DarkNova6 3y ago
This is such a perfect way to put it.
addicted 3y ago
A service economy with proper living wages is absolutely possible. I’m not a fan of such an economy because any country, especially one as large as the U.S., has no reason to be a single sector economy and plus as we saw during the pandemic and are seeing in the Ukraine war, a lack of domestic manufacturing capabilities is a significant strategic threat. However, the gig economy model is a choice. A choice that can be fixed by simply reclassifying these workers as employees. The gig economy is little more than a way to get around employee protections, and the sooner we face that obvious reality the better.
- forgetfreeman 3y ago
  No argument there. Startup culture's ongoing war on low wage workers is a fucking travesty.
- OkayPhysicist 3y ago
  California voters showed up in droves to prevent that exact classification change from happening, because your average voter is few IQ points away from needing help tying their shoes, and will absolutely eat up whatever lies Uber et al. will pump out.
  - casercaramel144 3y ago
    Good, this is exactly what we wanted. Service worker classification is straight up wealth transfer from delivery users to drivers since competition is so tight and everyone ie being squeezed. The needs of the many outweigh the entitlement of the few. It's unfair for delivery app users to have to subsidize employment for drivers when its clear there's many willing to accept the current terms.
    - forgetfreeman 3y ago
      Gross take. Entitled, self-centered, and a ham-handed attempt to co-opt the term "wealth transfer". If you really have this little regard for folks who actually work for a living you should get in your car and go get your own shit.
      - casercaramel144 2y ago
        Except everyone else also works for a living? Wealth transfer is a great descriptor of what that type of policy making leads to since it is in fact exactly taking money from delivery app users and giving to delivery app drivers. Do you disagree with this dynamic? If so where do you think the money for paying these drivers extra comes from? The amount of people using food delivery apps is some 2.31 billion worldwide. Are you suggesting that some 1/3 of the human population who would prefer to pay less for their food delivery all don't work for a living?
mlrtime 3y ago
No, this is what a very small section of a service industry looks like. There are millions of people who can have a livable wage in a service industry. The actual problem that I never see addressed is that should EVERY job be a "living wage" job. To me that answer is and always has been no. There will always be a need for temp workers.
- willcipriano 3y ago
  > There are millions of people who can have a livable wage in a service industry. There are millions of illegal immigrants, living 5 to a bedroom proping up the resturant industry. The back of house doesn't do very well at all, its only the wait staff that makes a fair wage for the effort.
  - Vvector 3y ago
    The solution is not to provide assistance to underpaid illegals. Better to penalize the company for hiring and underpaying them.
    - forgetfreeman 3y ago
      Ok so having roughly doubled the cost of restaurant meals what's our next move?
      - willcipriano 3y ago
        Not eat out often. Only on special occasions.
        forgetfreeman 3y ago
        K so having bankrupted the restaurant industry, what's next?
        willcipriano 3y ago
GardenLetter27 3y ago
And yet the average American is richer than ever, and far, far richer than the rest of the world.
- forgetfreeman 3y ago
  Not sure where you're basing that on. Household debt is up and wages have been stagnant for decades.

DarkNova6 3y ago

This is such a perfect way to put it.

addicted 3y ago

A service economy with proper living wages is absolutely possible. I’m not a fan of such an economy because any country, especially one as large as the U.S., has no reason to be a single sector economy and plus as we saw during the pandemic and are seeing in the Ukraine war, a lack of domestic manufacturing capabilities is a significant strategic threat. However, the gig economy model is a choice. A choice that can be fixed by simply reclassifying these workers as employees. The gig economy is little more than a way to get around employee protections, and the sooner we face that obvious reality the better.

forgetfreeman 3y ago
No argument there. Startup culture's ongoing war on low wage workers is a fucking travesty.
OkayPhysicist 3y ago
California voters showed up in droves to prevent that exact classification change from happening, because your average voter is few IQ points away from needing help tying their shoes, and will absolutely eat up whatever lies Uber et al. will pump out.
- casercaramel144 3y ago
  Good, this is exactly what we wanted. Service worker classification is straight up wealth transfer from delivery users to drivers since competition is so tight and everyone ie being squeezed. The needs of the many outweigh the entitlement of the few. It's unfair for delivery app users to have to subsidize employment for drivers when its clear there's many willing to accept the current terms.
  - forgetfreeman 3y ago
    Gross take. Entitled, self-centered, and a ham-handed attempt to co-opt the term "wealth transfer". If you really have this little regard for folks who actually work for a living you should get in your car and go get your own shit.
    - casercaramel144 2y ago
      Except everyone else also works for a living? Wealth transfer is a great descriptor of what that type of policy making leads to since it is in fact exactly taking money from delivery app users and giving to delivery app drivers. Do you disagree with this dynamic? If so where do you think the money for paying these drivers extra comes from? The amount of people using food delivery apps is some 2.31 billion worldwide. Are you suggesting that some 1/3 of the human population who would prefer to pay less for their food delivery all don't work for a living?

mlrtime 3y ago

No, this is what a very small section of a service industry looks like. There are millions of people who can have a livable wage in a service industry. The actual problem that I never see addressed is that should EVERY job be a "living wage" job. To me that answer is and always has been no. There will always be a need for temp workers.

willcipriano 3y ago
> There are millions of people who can have a livable wage in a service industry. There are millions of illegal immigrants, living 5 to a bedroom proping up the resturant industry. The back of house doesn't do very well at all, its only the wait staff that makes a fair wage for the effort.
- Vvector 3y ago
  The solution is not to provide assistance to underpaid illegals. Better to penalize the company for hiring and underpaying them.
  - forgetfreeman 3y ago
    Ok so having roughly doubled the cost of restaurant meals what's our next move?
    - willcipriano 3y ago
      Not eat out often. Only on special occasions.
      - forgetfreeman 3y ago
        K so having bankrupted the restaurant industry, what's next?
        willcipriano 3y ago

GardenLetter27 3y ago

And yet the average American is richer than ever, and far, far richer than the rest of the world.

forgetfreeman 3y ago
Not sure where you're basing that on. Household debt is up and wages have been stagnant for decades.