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The future of work is shitty jobs like this, but a la Uber you "get your side-hustle on" AKA have no rights or security as an employee ever anywhere. e: Which,

The future of work is shitty jobs like this, but a la Uber you "get your side-hustle on" AKA have no rights or security as an employee ever anywhere. e: Which, speaking of Marxism, this situation will keep you permanently alienated from your coworkers and will forever prevent community bonds from forming with them.

dvdhnt 8y ago
Which is basically the MO of those who are in power and control resources since forever, or at least in the U.S. - divide and conquer, project fault on outsiders, etc. For all that the internet has done, it has made weakening local communities easier.
chiefalchemist 8y ago
The sad irony of Uber et al is that it's only a matter of time before those drivers are replaced by AI. The point being, those drivers are doing more for the (short term) future of that company than any other entity. In the long term? For those drivers? The long term is not being an Uber driver.
conanbatt 8y ago
What do you think these people were doing being being drivers for uber?
- bmurphy1976 8y ago
  Probably struggling from the previous 40 years of union busting, rights erosion, offshoring, financial manipulation, and discrimination.
  - conanbatt 8y ago
    Struggling doesn't pay. What where they doing with the productivity before Uber, thats the question. Are you saying they weren't doing anything at all and uber lifted them out of extreme poverty?
    - tsnont34nt 8y ago
      Not the GP, but my guess is that they mean that they were doing equally bad jobs, but without Uber's pretense that it wasn't a bad job.
      - conanbatt 8y ago
        Poor them, being deluded from a job they had to a job they wanted. IF we could only enact legislation that forbid changing jobs.
ythn 8y ago
> AKA have no rights or security as an employee ever anywhere. I get what you are saying, but somehow this attitude also rubs me the wrong way sometimes. It's like "Hey, I'll pay anyone a nickle per piece of trash they pick up in the local forests" Soon: "NiceNature is the worst company ever! They exploit their workers to pick up garbage without proper protection, the employees have no rights or securities and are forced to pee on trees because no bathrooms are provided! Worst of all, they aren't even paid a living wage! /u/ythn is the worst CEO ever, he gluts himself off of the labors of the socioeconomicly desperate!" Like, all I really wanted was to fix a problem I saw with our local forests, not become a human trafficker...
- aisengard 8y ago
  That's not a good analogy to something like Uber, because there's no profit motive. What you described is essentially a government works program, which is a great idea! But that's not what anyone seems to be talking about.
  - ythn 8y ago
    You're right, the analogy is not good. I was more thinking about making an app for fun that solves some problem, makes you and your users a little money on the side, mostly intended for teenagers/college students, etc., but then the masses move into to squeeze every last cent out of it and I get demonized and accused of exploiting workers, etc, when it was never meant to be a life-sustaining employment opportunity to begin with. I.e. "biting the hand that feeds you" syndrome. Can't we just make cool things that don't require you to give 401k matching to everyone who touches your cool thing? Again, maybe this doesn't apply to Uber and they totally could be giving full benefits to all drivers, etc., but I'm just saying in general
    - aisengard 8y ago
      Someone has to provide necessities to society. In absence of government directly providing it, we force companies to do it. What you want is, essentially, socialism, with a little bit of the market carved out for market capitalism. Sounds good to me!

dvdhnt 8y ago

Which is basically the MO of those who are in power and control resources since forever, or at least in the U.S. - divide and conquer, project fault on outsiders, etc. For all that the internet has done, it has made weakening local communities easier.

chiefalchemist 8y ago

The sad irony of Uber et al is that it's only a matter of time before those drivers are replaced by AI. The point being, those drivers are doing more for the (short term) future of that company than any other entity. In the long term? For those drivers? The long term is not being an Uber driver.

conanbatt 8y ago

What do you think these people were doing being being drivers for uber?

bmurphy1976 8y ago
Probably struggling from the previous 40 years of union busting, rights erosion, offshoring, financial manipulation, and discrimination.
- conanbatt 8y ago
  Struggling doesn't pay. What where they doing with the productivity before Uber, thats the question. Are you saying they weren't doing anything at all and uber lifted them out of extreme poverty?
  - tsnont34nt 8y ago
    Not the GP, but my guess is that they mean that they were doing equally bad jobs, but without Uber's pretense that it wasn't a bad job.
    - conanbatt 8y ago
      Poor them, being deluded from a job they had to a job they wanted. IF we could only enact legislation that forbid changing jobs.

ythn 8y ago

> AKA have no rights or security as an employee ever anywhere. I get what you are saying, but somehow this attitude also rubs me the wrong way sometimes. It's like "Hey, I'll pay anyone a nickle per piece of trash they pick up in the local forests" Soon: "NiceNature is the worst company ever! They exploit their workers to pick up garbage without proper protection, the employees have no rights or securities and are forced to pee on trees because no bathrooms are provided! Worst of all, they aren't even paid a living wage! /u/ythn is the worst CEO ever, he gluts himself off of the labors of the socioeconomicly desperate!" Like, all I really wanted was to fix a problem I saw with our local forests, not become a human trafficker...

aisengard 8y ago
That's not a good analogy to something like Uber, because there's no profit motive. What you described is essentially a government works program, which is a great idea! But that's not what anyone seems to be talking about.
- ythn 8y ago
  You're right, the analogy is not good. I was more thinking about making an app for fun that solves some problem, makes you and your users a little money on the side, mostly intended for teenagers/college students, etc., but then the masses move into to squeeze every last cent out of it and I get demonized and accused of exploiting workers, etc, when it was never meant to be a life-sustaining employment opportunity to begin with. I.e. "biting the hand that feeds you" syndrome. Can't we just make cool things that don't require you to give 401k matching to everyone who touches your cool thing? Again, maybe this doesn't apply to Uber and they totally could be giving full benefits to all drivers, etc., but I'm just saying in general
  - aisengard 8y ago
    Someone has to provide necessities to society. In absence of government directly providing it, we force companies to do it. What you want is, essentially, socialism, with a little bit of the market carved out for market capitalism. Sounds good to me!