
Service for Some, Slavery for Others - ingve
http://gerrymcgovern.com/service-for-some-slavery-for-others/
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seibelj
Good customer support agents are highly valued by many tech companies where
support is a key value-add to their solution. Three of the companies I have
worked for paid very well for top-tier CX employees.

Just like some developers are treated by their companies as an expense, other
companies highly value developers and pay them well. This is the same with
customer support, and good support agents who are feeling mistreated find
higher-end jobs.

Good waiters at restaurants work at high-end establishments and make good
salaries. In a free society, people flow towards better jobs that are a better
match for their skillset.

You don't need to feel that you live in a digital hellscape populated by
slaves, as the author proposes. The person driving your Uber likely chose that
to make money, rather than all the other ways they could have made money,
because they prefer it.

There is a popular theme lately being promoted by educated, well-off people
that society is being destroyed by mobile apps, Facebook, on-demand food-
delivery service, etc. It's really not. Go enjoy your day and stop getting
yourself worked up.

~~~
caprese
> The person driving your Uber likely chose that to make money, rather than
> all the other ways they could have made money, because they prefer it.

or didn't perceive the other ways, or didn't have resources for other ways, or
wasn't approved for the subset of other ways that they both perceived and had
resources for

~~~
seibelj
You assume that uber drivers are ignorant. I assume that people know how to
live their own lives. They had the resources to acquire a car and a driver's
license. There are many, many worse jobs out there than driving a car.

~~~
toomuchtodo
Most ridesharing drivers are ignorant of the expenses they're incurring, and
therefore the effective wage they're receiving. Just because you know how to
survive doesn't mean you know how to calculate the return on your time and
vehicle investment (clearly, as American personal finance education is
woefully inadequate).

I find arguments such as that put forth as deeply disingenuous, that most
people are rational, exceptionally educated economic actors (if you can
convince someone to give you an auto loan and a drivers license, which are
extremely low bars, than you can clearly determine if gig economy work is in
your best interests), when overwhelming evidence proves otherwise. To me, it
comes off as justifying exploitation (ie "the gig economy"), which clearly has
no place in first world countries or this century. But, with the number of
tech workers who are employed at highly compensated at exploitative entities,
I am not surprised in the least.

------
esotericn
If you are of the view that everyone does what they do because they're somehow
economically forced into it then you're going to see the world as a very dark
place indeed.

Whether you're correct in that view or not is almost irrelevant because the
effect will be the same. It's going to infect your every interaction.

Honestly, I find this more of a common sentiment amongst historically well off
folk. I grew up poor and this sort of "everything is awful because we're
slaves" mindset didn't exist.

Not everyone has the skill or capital to apply for any job or start any
business tomorrow. That much is obvious. That's a very different concept from
slavery.

------
gfodor
I hate "analysis" like this, which is divorced from data or trends over time
to make fair comparisions. Here are some actual questions worth answering, and
likely could be, based upon data:

\- What income levels are Uber drivers (and others being paid by these
companies) within their region? How do these wages compare to other non-
skilled, non-physical labor?

\- When asked, what do these workers say about their working conditions? Why
do they choose to work for these companies vs some other low-skill job?

\- What about mobility? What is the average duration of a person's "career" as
an Uber driver? What is the distribution of outcomes? What events typically
cause entry and exit from a contract relationship with Uber?

I am genuinely curious if the prevalence always-available of low-barrier-to-
entry/exit, low physical labor "gigs" like Uber has resulted in increased
income mobility, standard of living, etc, for those working for these
companies. It seems that the kinds of questions by this author are only
relevant insofar as companies like Uber have displaced other opportunities or
driven down the standard of living of their contractors. One factor that seems
particularly troubling is the fact these contractors are not employees, and so
have no bargaining power, benefits, etc, which may become normalized due to
the introduction of these jobs as other companies try to compete for these
workers.

It's unclear to me if Uber et all simply add more jobs for the unskilled labor
pool to consider or in fact are having a negative effect on bargaining power,
average wages, and income mobility compared to the previous regime of
unskilled, non-physical labor opportunity pool (retail, fast food, etc.)

It sure would be nice if there was a clear answer to this question based upon
data.

~~~
AlexTWithBeard
_When asked, what do these workers say about their working conditions?_

My sample is quite small, but from quick chats with Uber drivers they seemed
to like it.

You won't become a millionaire driving Uber, but it's better than being a deli
clerk in a grocery store next door.

~~~
EnderViaAnsible
I wonder how their feelings might change when the maintenance costs come home
to roost, when their frequent driving involves them in an accident their
insurance company refuses to cover (because they have personal use insurance),
and now they have neither car nor job, etc.

Basically, it seems to me that there is a lot of deferred cost and risk and
that people are, in general, very bad at assessing. Perhaps the job is not
worth it if you factor in these long term factors, but most people have not
yet had to factor them in. (As our OP said, data would be nice here. When do
these costs come home for drivers? What do they say then?)

One thing I will say. Professionalization and licensure certainly brings its
own hazards, but one thing it almost always does is drive up wages for the
licensee. The taxi market in NYC is wacked out, but taxi drivers can usually
enjoy a decent standard of living in major metros with licensed taxi systems.

~~~
AlexTWithBeard
FWIW, Uber provides insurance for its drivers.

------
aqi
The problem is much bigger than the existence of these gig economy services.
The deeper issue is that demand for unskilled labor has become weak enough
that, for many people, this is their best option relative to their skill set.
Working conditions _are_ terrible, but I don't think it would be a good thing
for the world if Uber and the rest of the gig economy services magically
disappeared one day: it would simply put the drivers into a financial tailspin
with no real chance of escape. Moreover, Uber and Lyft are in a race to the
bottom in terms of prices, and neither can unilaterally raise driver wages
without pushing riders to the other app. The global economic rat race to drive
down prices is unrelenting.

I suspect that universal basic income will become extremely popular in the
public view, bordering on necessity, to offset the rise in inequality in the
United States.

------
hirundo
We are all a slave to the needs of our own body. When I'm hungry for instance
(or anticipate being hungry), I act to serve that slave master.

If you offer to pay me to drive you from point A to B and I freely accept, you
do not become my slave master just because you exploit my need to serve my
true master. I would be worse off if you failed to exploit that need.

The final slave master is mother nature, and she's a heartless bitch. It's
frequently easier to blame our fellow slaves. The true slave masters are the
ones that offer pain instead of cash for your labor.

If you want to blame an actual person for your pain and identify them as your
slave master, the one with the most choice in the matter was probably your
mother. Blame her. And also give her a call and tell her you love her, because
it's almost Mother's Day, and there are good parts to being alive too.

------
atemerev
Uber is making life of Uber drivers better, by giving them the option to be an
Uber driver and providing customers and rules of engagement. It creates new
means of earning a living, instead of taking it away. What is even the
question? It is not the best job in the world, but surely beats no job at all.

~~~
bryanlarsen
"no job at all" means welfare, which may give you the time and training
opportunity to get a better job

~~~
atemerev
There are many people who are not allowed or don’t have the opportunity to get
welfare (immigrants, people who lose the competition for welfare — it is not a
straightforward process, etc.) Not to mention that welfare is not limitless
and usually quite low compared to working income, even from driving Uber.

------
daniel-cussen
> For instance, Uber seeks to ride to a mega IPO on the backs of its slave
> drivers.

Note that a "slave driver" is a kind of overseer that makes the slaves work
harder. "Drivers who are slaves" might work better here.

------
bschelsea
Hmm I feel like Billionaires are an easy target. And while the narrative is
easy to sell, I doubt it’s the real answer. My belief is that wrong kind of
complexity created the current state. Take Healthcare, Manufactured scarcity
of doctors, lawsuits, layers of insurance, pharmacy benefits managers, mergers
of hospitals all lead to the present dysfunctional state. Did few billionaires
profit off of it sure, but the blame lies on overly complex system of
intermediary agents all bleeding the system. The answer might as well be
Medicare for All.

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ThJ
This kind of perspective is pretty much the standard perspective of the
European left. Saying these things is almost like saying nothing, because it's
what you expect.

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ganonm
If the proverbial 'man from mars' took a look at developed Western society
what might he see? A middle aged man gets up at 7am and climbs into a car,
conveniently parked right beside the shabby dwelling he sleeps in. He then
spends the next 18 hours ferrying other people from location to location
stopping only to use the toilet. He eats when he can - maybe a rushed sandwich
during a 5 minute quiet period until he is again summoned to the next person.
At the end of the day he returns to his starting point and, exhausted,
collapses into his bed. The next day he repeats this.

The man from mars concludes that this person must be a slave.

~~~
elken
Could you not apply the same logic to any occupation?

I get out of bed, head to an office and build software on the orders of those
who pay me, I get summoned to meetings at their behest, I work long hours,
only stopping to go to the toilet, I too get home and collapse into bed to
repeat the next day.

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friedman23
The author takes the etymology of the word service notices that it is based on
the word slavery and decides to conflate all service jobs with slavery.

