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What a rosy Econ 101 view of the world. In reality, tons of people are desperate for money and put up with a lot of predatory business processes. Lots of people

What a rosy Econ 101 view of the world. In reality, tons of people are desperate for money and put up with a lot of predatory business processes. Lots of people work without healthcare because they're purposely scheduled for just enough hours to make them less than full time. http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2012/02/mac-mcclelland-free-online-shipping-warehouses-labor http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2012/02/mac-mcclelland-f... http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2001/07/dangerous-meatpacking-jobs-eric-schlosser http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2001/07/dangerous-meatpa...

marknutter 13y ago
A lot of businesses are desperate for good workers and put up with a lot of predatory worker behaviors.
- fnimick 13y ago
  Rubbish. This is an employer's economy, and they have all the power. I can be replaced a lot easier than I can find another job.
  - flyinRyan 13y ago
    It's always an employer's economy. We call it an "employees economy" when they exploit us a bit less than they have previously. But even now, what some are calling the best time in history to be a software dev, there was a startup right here on HN complaining about how hard it was to find the perfect employee and how they've been looking for over a year. Could you go without income for a year? I sure as hell couldn't.
- minikites 13y ago
  Workers totally have all the power, like low unemployment, strong unions, and strong government services (e.g. healthcare, unemployment insurance, TANF/SNAP) so they have a safety net if they quit. Won't someone think of the poor abused business owners?!
pc86 13y ago
So glad you chose neutral, apolitical sources for your tangential point! /s
- minikites 13y ago
  "In 1999, more than one-quarter of America's nearly 150,000 meatpacking workers suffered a job-related injury or illness. The meatpacking industry not only has the highest injury rate, but also has by far the highest rate of serious injury—more than five times the national average, as measured in lost workdays. If you accept the official figures, about 40,000 meatpacking workers are injured on the job every year. But the actual number is most likely higher. The meatpacking industry has a well-documented history of discouraging injury reports, falsifying injury data, and putting injured workers back on the job quickly to minimize the reporting of lost workdays." Not sure how that's a political issue. "Well, what if I do start crying?" I ask the woman who warns me to keep it together no matter how awfully I'm treated. "Are they really going to fire me for that?" "Yes," she says. "There's 16 other people who want your job. Why would they keep a person who gets emotional, especially in this economy?" Not sure how that's a political issue either.
  - pc86 13y ago
    I'm late to respond but hopefully you'll see this. Let's look at what I actually said and the context in which I said it. theorique: This article is full of bias. The writer has an anti-business agenda and cherry picked a group of examples in order to make these kind of services wrong. I think most people, regardless of their opinion of theorique's comment, would agree that this is a fairly political statement. If nothing else, it's saying the OA is political. The response by minikites: What a rosy Econ 101 view of the world. In reality, tons of people are desperate for money and put up with a lot of predatory business processes. Lots of people work without healthcare because they're purposely scheduled for just enough hours to make them less than full time. followed by two links to the motherjones.com domain Also a fairly political statement in itself, even disregarding the sources. However, I commented specifically on the source. Motherjones.com. A site owned by the Foundation for National Progress. It'd be hard to come up with a more political name that doesn't include Republican or Democratic. From their own FAQ page you can pull out several nice-sounding phrases that are thinly veiled Democratic talking points. Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying it's a bad site or that liberalism or progressivism is wrong. What I am saying is that you don't try to disprove someone saying a Salon.com article is biased (in favor of the Left) by providing them with corroborating sources from a website even more liberal than Salon.com. It's like combating the Tea Party by providing a Kucinich speech calling Obama a warmonger.

marknutter 13y ago

A lot of businesses are desperate for good workers and put up with a lot of predatory worker behaviors.

fnimick 13y ago
Rubbish. This is an employer's economy, and they have all the power. I can be replaced a lot easier than I can find another job.
- flyinRyan 13y ago
  It's always an employer's economy. We call it an "employees economy" when they exploit us a bit less than they have previously. But even now, what some are calling the best time in history to be a software dev, there was a startup right here on HN complaining about how hard it was to find the perfect employee and how they've been looking for over a year. Could you go without income for a year? I sure as hell couldn't.
minikites 13y ago
Workers totally have all the power, like low unemployment, strong unions, and strong government services (e.g. healthcare, unemployment insurance, TANF/SNAP) so they have a safety net if they quit. Won't someone think of the poor abused business owners?!

pc86 13y ago

So glad you chose neutral, apolitical sources for your tangential point! /s

minikites 13y ago
"In 1999, more than one-quarter of America's nearly 150,000 meatpacking workers suffered a job-related injury or illness. The meatpacking industry not only has the highest injury rate, but also has by far the highest rate of serious injury—more than five times the national average, as measured in lost workdays. If you accept the official figures, about 40,000 meatpacking workers are injured on the job every year. But the actual number is most likely higher. The meatpacking industry has a well-documented history of discouraging injury reports, falsifying injury data, and putting injured workers back on the job quickly to minimize the reporting of lost workdays." Not sure how that's a political issue. "Well, what if I do start crying?" I ask the woman who warns me to keep it together no matter how awfully I'm treated. "Are they really going to fire me for that?" "Yes," she says. "There's 16 other people who want your job. Why would they keep a person who gets emotional, especially in this economy?" Not sure how that's a political issue either.
- pc86 13y ago
  I'm late to respond but hopefully you'll see this. Let's look at what I actually said and the context in which I said it. theorique: This article is full of bias. The writer has an anti-business agenda and cherry picked a group of examples in order to make these kind of services wrong. I think most people, regardless of their opinion of theorique's comment, would agree that this is a fairly political statement. If nothing else, it's saying the OA is political. The response by minikites: What a rosy Econ 101 view of the world. In reality, tons of people are desperate for money and put up with a lot of predatory business processes. Lots of people work without healthcare because they're purposely scheduled for just enough hours to make them less than full time. followed by two links to the motherjones.com domain Also a fairly political statement in itself, even disregarding the sources. However, I commented specifically on the source. Motherjones.com. A site owned by the Foundation for National Progress. It'd be hard to come up with a more political name that doesn't include Republican or Democratic. From their own FAQ page you can pull out several nice-sounding phrases that are thinly veiled Democratic talking points. Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying it's a bad site or that liberalism or progressivism is wrong. What I am saying is that you don't try to disprove someone saying a Salon.com article is biased (in favor of the Left) by providing them with corroborating sources from a website even more liberal than Salon.com. It's like combating the Tea Party by providing a Kucinich speech calling Obama a warmonger.