Tradeoffs involved in the sharing economy.
To achieve that [efficiency], many of these app and Web-based platforms have set up the equivalent of a labor auction block - but it's an auction in which the lowest bids win. Freelancers and contractors bid against each other to win the job, and since the Internet is global, some of these labor brokerage websites put US workers into direct competition with workers in the Philippines, India and other places. The result is predictable: cheap, Third World labor undercuts developed-world wages. It's a race to the bottom, with many gig-preneurs complaining that, after the platform takes its cut and the workers subtract their expenses, sometimes they make less than minimum wage.
So companies like Uber, Postmates, Upwork and TaskRabbit claim that they are "liberating workers" to become "independent," "in business for themselves" and "the CEOs of their own businesses." In reality, the workers are vulnerable contractors, with no safety net benefits or job security, and they have little choice but to take ever-smaller jobs ("gigs" and "micro-gigs") and low wages while the company profits in what I call the "share the crumbs" economy.…Truthout
Runaway Capitalism Is Crushing American Workers
Mark Karlin interviews Steven Hill, author of RAW DEAL: How the "Uber Economy" and Runaway Capitalism Are Screwing American Workers
3 comments:
Let "runaway capitalism" run its course. The more people find themselves in a precarious situation, the more willing they will be to consider alternatives. At some point, a countervailing force must develop.
" In reality, the workers are vulnerable contractors, with no safety net benefits or job security, and they have little choice but to take ever-smaller jobs ("gigs" and "micro-gigs") and low wages while the company profits in what I call the "share the crumbs" economy."
Only because there are more workers than there are jobs. The secret is, as ever, to create more and more jobs and get more and more done.
When rates go the other way, and contractors can name their price you find that the hirers are straight onto the government moaning. When the boot is on the other foot the workers are ignored. That power imbalance is difficult to correct.
It just takes time for laws and regulations to catch up with those who try to break the law in new and innovative ways. Whether subverting labor laws, health and safety laws, or whatever is driving profit, those laws either were superfluous in the first place and un-needed or will come again in a few years when people are hurt, injured or abused and it turns out the laws were not out-dated. For the time being they force most to follow the law and lose customers, while those disruptivators can ignore the law and profit to gain a foothold until the old pay off the government to squeeze the new.
There are some disruptivators that aren't merely law-breakers however. Those capturing the commons are more dangerous and permanent. Companies that are "giving" their "free" patented systems to state department of transportations when they build new and repair old roadways to allow their new self driving systems to become "the standard" are an example. Capture, control, and interfering with regulation and corrupt law-making is the name of the game. As they systematically expand their influence, they eventually effectively own and control what used to be public. There are hundreds of examples right now. Airwaves, to Airways, drones, near-earth space, satellites it is all for the taking. Look at those fish farms on google earth. Someone is taking all the near-shore land for farms! And they "own" those farms. It's huge to think in terms of the rule of capture laws. It changes the way you think about making money and business to far more innovative models.
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