
The Gig Economy Celebrates Working To Excess - type4
http://www.newyorker.com/culture/jia-tolentino/the-gig-economy-celebrates-working-yourself-to-death
======
seanhandley
As a European (used to free healthcare, statutory maternity leave, and 25 days
paid leave per year) it shocked me on first visiting America how third-world
it actually feels regarding what people consider a "normal" work/life balance.

People work incredibly hard, long hours and often with very little to show for
it. It's surreal.

~~~
thw1438383
Atleast they get paid relatively more than in the EU. In Japan you're expected
to work mad hours (read 11-12 hrs) for what is barely above minimum wage in
the US! Add to that Tokyo is hecka expensive.

I was quoted a salary of $ 30k for a deep learning position. Now that is third
world.

~~~
tscs37
Please keep in mind that your costs of living are also different.

In the EU you don't pay as much for the same services as in the US, especially
healthcare.

I'm not sure about Japan but it could be the same thing there.

~~~
TulliusCicero
Tokyo's definitely cheaper than the bay area or NYC, but it's still not
exactly cheap. The median monthly rent is low, but you have to figure that the
median apartment is tiny by American standards.

~~~
ZeroGravitas
So many comments about big houses, I'm wondering if buying a big house in the
suburbs that you have to commute hours to work from and therefore rarely enjoy
is (to quote Homer Simpson) both the solution and the cause of all America's
problems.

~~~
spiralx
It's certainly a problem that American suburbs lack the local services that
typically exist in European cities, which is currently exacerbating the issue
of suburban poverty:

[https://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2015/01/suburbs...](https://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2015/01/suburbs-
and-the-new-american-poverty/384259/)

------
d--b
This is a strangely divisive topic in the startup industry.

For some reason, there are smart people who think that meritocracy works: work
hard and things will be good for you. The problem is that _in many cases_
working hard (as in building up a startup) does indeed give people the
opportunity to rise in society. But it is not true in all cases at all. And so
the negative statement "if you are struggling you didn't try enough" is
completely flawed.

First, in capitalism, a work's remuneration is supposed to be related in a way
to the perceived utility of that work for society in general. Second
competition means that a work's remuneration is inversely proportional to how
easy it is to perform.

Using those 2 propositions, it becomes obvious that jobs with little utility
and high competition have a remuneration that tends to go down to 0 (fast
food, taxis, etc.). So in these cases, no matter how hard you work, your pay
can only go that high.

~~~
imgabe
> First, in capitalism, a work's remuneration is supposed to be related in a
> way to the perceived utility of that work for society in general.

This is a misconception, I think. A work's remuneration is related to the
utility perceived _by the person providing the remuneration_. Society in
general doesn't pay people. Specific people pay other people. Find something
enough people want and give it to them. It's not any more complicated than
that.

~~~
ice109
you're wrong. if some good is over valued for long enough market dynamics kick
in and the price will go down.

~~~
1_2__3
That's the Econ 101 textbook statement, not reality.

------
DanielBMarkham
_"...It does require a fairly dystopian strain of doublethink for a company to
celebrate how hard and how constantly its employees must work to make a
living, given that these companies are themselves setting the terms..."_

"setting the terms" is a bit over-the-top here. If I want to go from here to
the airport, and you have a car, and I offer you twenty bucks, is that okay?
Does it somehow become bad if we meet online in a chat room? How about if a
thousand people in this city make this trade on a chat room today? So somebody
sets up an online app. At that point do the people setting up the app "set the
terms"? Does it happen when they have standards for who can use the app?

In that last statement, where the app creators start setting standards for who
can participate, we run into problems -- mainly because if you're the
gatekeeper, you can charge rent on both parties seeking the deal. Other than
that, there's nothing amiss or terrible going on here.

Western literature has this childish and somewhat verklempt tradition of
taking something that's new and making it into an emotional outburst. Thoreau
goes out into the woods and laments the arrival of trains, the stresses of the
city, and the war against Mexico. Dickens with his cutting criticism of
Victorian England.

When done well, it's a thing of beauty. Most of the time, however, authors get
a little too tied-up in belly-button-gazing and confuse "things that I can
become emotional about and rant" with "things that are important and transcend
time" We all take the shortcut of "if it's important to me, it must be
important"

I am a bit concerned about Uber, Lyft, and the gig economy. On one hand, I am
concerned that companies are exerting so much control over the marketplace
that they're not innovating as much as they are creating monopolies. On the
other hand, however, I am concerned that because this destroys the concept of
"a job" for so many people, and the relationship to their employer and country
-- they are going to push hard for limiting all sorts of free trade under the
rubric of "something must be done!"

In this case, quite literally, the writer begins her essay with an example of
how people might feel that something must be done for the children.

My first wife worked a 9-5 W-2 job during her labor with our second child. I
didn't tell her to do it, we didn't need the money. She said she'd rather be
doing something than hanging out at home or the hospital. I guess I could tell
the story of our second child in much the same way as this author told the
story of the Lyft driver in labor -- how some folks "might" look at it as
exploitation. But I'm not 17 any more, and I don't tend to view individual
choices as being some kind of massive battle between forces that I must take
sides on. It was her choice and she made it. For me to come along later and
use it as an example for _any_ kind of political bullshit is whack. Rant all
you want about whatever topic you'd like, but never take agency away from
folks simply because you think you might get a little extra mileage out of
your essay.

~~~
delegate
If I charge money for my car repeatedly, it means I'm renting it so I'm
running a business. If I do it through an app, now I'm playing by their rules,
not mine. These companies are setting the terms, because they make the
software, run the platform and process the payments. The article is correct,
no need to bend reality any further, it's quite simple.

Maybe your wife was enjoying work during her pregnancy and it was her choice.
But then maybe the woman described in the article didn't have a choice - maybe
she really needed money to pay for the hospital bill and all the other
expenses that come with having a child.

In a wealthy, healthy society, women shouldn't be forced (directly or by
'choice") to work until they give birth in their cars. People shouldn't have
to do 'gigs' for $5 either.

That's just the state of the economy that gives rise to these kinds of
rackets.

The 'system' is not just the set of rules and regulations, but also the
beliefs and convictions of the people - what they think is fair and 'normal'.
For some people it's normal for 10-year olds to do hard physical labor, for
others it's 'normal' to eat dogs. We've decided these things aren't 'normal'.

Seeing the world through the ruthless capitalist work-till-you-die, climb to
the top lens is detrimental to the future of the world. We should figure out
new ways of living in a society, using technology as a way to reduce
injustice, rather than generate newer and newer versions of it in exchange for
profit.

~~~
DanielBMarkham
I don't know if this has occurred to you, but being angry because you think
that others are "..Seeing the world through the ruthless capitalist work-till-
you-die, climb to the top lens is detrimental to the future of the world. ..."
is doing exactly what you hate: viewing everything in life as a monetary
transaction, then judging the universe as a result of how much money is made.

I said there's a case to be made that companies are setting up monopolies and
hurting both parties in the exchange. If you'd like to make that case, do it.
I'm all ears.

But please (and I speak to the author of this piece more than you) -- don't
fuck with me, jumping up on a soapbox and telling me how the world should be.
Hell, I never thought they should cancel Gilligan's Island. How the hell
should I know whether or not some random person is being exploited unless they
tell me? And even then, this is an argument to be made using statistics
_alongside_ personal stories used as examples. Anybody that can put a sentence
together can preach. All that takes is a lot of emotion and some rubes that
like getting emotional. I'll be more blunt: the author needs to get a better
game or go home.

I'm open to the discussion if it can be made in a reasonable, adult manner.
Grandstanding, chest-thumping, and emoting? It's great if you like drama. Just
ain't hitting on much when it comes to reasoned discourse. There are a lot of
folks in the world who'd rather appear as a talking head on a cable TV show
yelling at another talking head than simply open their heart and try to find
consensus.

------
cbanek
Seems like in America it's hard to win. Either get paid not nearly enough and
struggle to make ends meet, or get a high paid high stress job, still work all
day and all night.

Maybe we just have too much of that protestant work ethic?

~~~
SwellJoe
Some might say "too much capitalism". I don't know many protestants.

~~~
WaxProlix
"Too much capitalism" would imply that the people who get money funneled to
them at the top don't _work hard enough_ (or take enough risk) to earn that
money. Surely you don't believe that?

edit: Sarcasm on HN is a bad idea. Obviously earning 400x a worker's wage is
bullshit, there's no amount of work that justifies that.

~~~
WalterBright
It's not at all about how hard you work. It's about working smart, i.e.
working on the right things.

~~~
pikzen
Some people don't get to work on the right things. Hell, most people don't get
to work on the right things, by virtue of not being born in the right social
class, the right skin color, the right neighbourhood, the right family.

------
throw2016
The biggest irony is all the well meaning starts ups from SV desperately
trying 'improve the world' when they can't even improve the city they live in.
Not because of failure from trying but because they can't be bothered.

Without a moral compass the only thing they can deliver is a dry soulless
unfeeling dystopia stripped of any hint of humanity. Those who don't want
present day SV to be replicated in their regions should be wary of the
ideological underpinnings of SV startup culture and American capitalism.

The lack of a properly defined moral compass from those from non privileged
backgrounds struggling through life guided perhaps by upbringing or religion
but with no time to ponder or reflect can perhaps be understood but for a
privileged well educated elite to display this level of apathy towards
humanism is a truly shocking state of affairs.

Ultimately its our humanity, our relationships, our capacity for feeling and
emotion that enriches our existence, not money.

------
m23khan
Can't speak for whole of Canada but Toronto is definitely on track to become a
city where it is impossible to buy a house and rents are so high that for a
family - both husband and wife need to work and one of the spouse has to have
a side gig for making the money to feed and clothe the family along with some
meagre savings.

Canadian government keeps stating that inflation rate is less than 2% but
reality is, in Toronto, it is probably running in excess of 10% for last 10+
years. However, the companies keep pretending that for their existing
employees, if they are lucky to get a raise, that raise should be 3% or 4%.

In Toronto, even modest vacations feel like luxury and entertainment options
seem to be leave you with a feeling that your pocket is on fire.

Now before my pro-Canadiana countrymen come here and lecture me on how great
Canada is (and yes, the free healthcare!!), let me tell you: I like Canada and
definitely feel it is the place to be. I am just stating in context of the
article, that is all.

~~~
badsock
I understand the argument for excluding housing, food, and fuel from the
official inflation stats, but at this point it's making that number a complete
departure from reality.

Canada right now is basically getting divided into two classes: those who
happened to own real estate a decade or two ago and their children, and
everyone else.

That's not success based on how hard you worked, or how much you contributed
to society, or proportionate to the amount of risk you took. It's just
(mostly) Chinese money randomly landing on some of the population, and causing
real issues with quality of life and serious opportunity costs for the rest.
That is not something we should be happy about, and it's something that we
should have better numbers on.

------
rick_cheese
Yet all of these companies weave a wonderful narrative about changing the
world, empowering people, giving them freedom and independence. Clearly the
business models are based on exploitation of the downtrodden and uneducated.
Due to clever PR many actually believe this is cool.

~~~
jamesblonde
This is a classic such example from Lyft: [http://creativity-
online.com/work/lyft-junelife-is-better-wh...](http://creativity-
online.com/work/lyft-junelife-is-better-when-you-share-the-ride/50329)

Goebels would be proud. The granny is a lyft driver (1) by choice (2) it helps
with her loneliness (3) she gets affirmation of her value to society.

Of course, the reality is that drivers drive Lyft through necessity, and it is
lonely job much of the time.

The real kicker, though, is that the advertisement is not even to try and get
more drivers. It's used to asuage middle-class guilt who are underpaying for
the labour of one of their peers. Middle class people should think 'Hey, these
people drive by choice, and it's fun. Win win!'

------
dalbasal
This article, and most discussions on this topic are all rich with sub-text.

 _It offers to connect drivers with an insurance broker, and helpfully notes
that “the Affordable Care Act offers many choices to make sure you’re
covered.”_

..a lot of sub-text here, for example.

One piece of the sub-text coming up in my internet & human bubble is
"technological unemployment" which I have a slightly different take on then a
lot of what I read. I think we're seeing it already and it manifests mostly as
wage disparity, not unemployment.

On the subtext of that quote, it seems to be on the side of what we generall
call "labour socialism" in Europe. The idea that laws should focus on
increasing low leverage emloyees' bargaining power and/or mandated benefits.

IMO, this is a dated position. We've seen relatively consistent success with
government provided primary services: health, education & transport. This gets
called welfarism, though I think centralism is a better term. We have not seen
that kind of success in the labour-socialist sphere. In fact, example like
France suggest a problematic trade-off between "good" employment and
unemployment. I think the main problem is labour-socialism's tendency to
corporatism.

I would really like to see employment (including the gig economy) be free-er
but suplemented with free or subsidized basic services (health & education
mostly) and a basic income. If housing prices are not pathological (as they
often are), the gig-worker would be a lot better off. Instead of chasing our
tail trying to force uber (or regular taxi companies) to provide stabilty, the
state can just subsidize the citizen and provide stability on some fronts. It
doesn't even require "big government" for the most part.

In most of west Europe, we should be able to implement this _relativley_
easily. Redundant conditional welfare benefits (dole, pensions) already spend
25-40% of what a UBI would cost. Another 25%-40% could be taxed back as income
tax without disadvantaging workers (IE, your UBI is >= tax increases). That's
most of the way to funding it. This remaining gap mostly represents the uber
driver, workers earning well below national average dealing with insecurity
and on the wrong end of employer provided benefits (like health insurance).

I don't think the US can do it anytime soon though.

~~~
campbellmorgan
I agree thoroughly with your sentiment and am a strong believer in the welfare
state as a way of addressing social imbalances. I also like the economics of
the state providing better stability to those in the gig economy because, in
theory, it will mean that they feel less pressure to work unhealthy hours (as
in the article) and this, in turn, should increase the minimum amount they
will work for. However, my objection to this as solution is the situation of
non-domiciled, largely un-taxed multinationals not contributing fairly to the
pot that keeps the welfare working. As far as I can see, that amounts to a
wealth transfer from the state to the shareholders and high-level managers of
these companies.

Of course the solution would be to tax these companies fairly (which at least
in the UK, is slowly beginning to happen), but eventually when taxed fairly
enough, doesn't the burden for the companies end up being the same? The only
difference is that the state would be footing the bill for the admin overhead
of supporting these workers.

~~~
dalbasal
Think of it as supporting citizens instead of workers.

UK corporate & capital gains taxes make up less than 10% of overall taxes.
This is normal. I'm a pragmatist. Happy to support any realistic plan to shift
tax burdens upmarket, if possible but my starting position is that we have X
resources to work with. X= about 40% of gbp in most countries. I don't think
economies can support much more. I'm not counting on any of the politicians
promising to tax multinationals. If they succeed in bringing in VAT-like sums
without taking it from the pocket of workers I will change my mind. For now,
work with what we got.

------
willdotphipps
...you see even IF Uber prohibit drivers from using their own app between
rides, if they all just agree, they can just go fuck it, we've had enough.
anyone here ever spoken to a happy Uber driver?

Me neither. Wife...family..kids meanwhile Kalanick gets his $6bn...NICE.

~~~
ycombinete
Literally every Uber driver I've spoken to was happy. In fact many of them
have actually quit other jobs, to drive an Uber.

~~~
CPLX
And literally every person who has carried bags to my hotel room has seemed
pleased to serve me.

~~~
dustinmr
You really have little respect for service workers, don't you? Many people in
tourism actually like what they do. Others even see you as the sucker.

I came her to agree with the gf comment. It may be partially geographic, as
I'm in Miami and about 75% of the drivers I've spoken with are Venezuelan,
arrived in the last 2 years or so, and are very happy with their life change
and their job driving.

And the other 25% are largely either other immigrants or former taxi drivers
who are, after talking with a number of them about how the economics worked in
taxis and with Uber/Lyft, significantly less exploited than they were working
for taxi companies. They see Uber/Lyft as an upgrade, a big one.

Trying actually talking with them and asking enough to get to their real
opinions. You might hear some spectacular stories, like the Cuban driver I
spoke with who walked ashore in Key West on July 4th, and the beachgoers paid
a taxi to his family's house in Miami (a 3 hour taxi fare). Then, after he
ended up on the street he panhandled and saved enough to rent a car and drive
Uber/Lyft while he began working to get his electrician's license in the US
(he was an electrician in Cuba). He was just a few weeks from getting his
license.

Tenacity. Pure tenacity. The gig economy was working very well for him. And he
was quite happy with how he was able to use it to improve his life.

~~~
nommm-nommm
How does saying what the parent say equate to having "little respect?" Some
people enjoy their job, no matter what they do, for sure. Absolutely. Some
people hate their job but pretend to love their job because part of their job
(service) is to give the appearance that they are very, very happy. Pointing
that out is not disrespectful.

~~~
dustinmr
To me the tone implied that all hotel workers must hate what they do or even
see it as demeaning.

Perhaps I read too much into it.

~~~
nommm-nommm
Your read way too much into it, your naïveté was simply being pointed out.
There was no such implication.

Part of good customer service in the US is pretending you're really _really_
happy to do whatever it is you are doing for your customer. "It is my
_pleasure_ to serve you." The staff at Texas Roadhouse wear shirts that say "I
love my job," for crying out loud. It's extremely unprofessional to complain
to your customers so you're going to put a positive spin on everything.

Doubly so if you are really jonesing for a tip.

If I were in a customer service position and my customer asked me how I liked
my job I'd tell them I loved it, no matter if it were the truth or not. I'd
lie through my teeth because its my job to be positive, not honest. That's not
to say you're always going to be dishonest.

It's just like when a stranger asks you "how you doing?" You say, "good, how
about you?" Even when you're miserable. It's just a social nicety people​ do
and has no bearing on how someone is actually doing. Pointing that out isn't
implying that every single person who says "I'm doing good" is secretly
miserable.

------
grabcocque
All very interesting theories, but the US isn't an amazingly hard working
nation by global standards.

[https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Working_time](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Working_time)

~~~
J-dawg
The ranking [0] is absolutely fascinating, and contains a lot of surprises.

Who knew that Mexicans work 500 hours a year more than the Japanese?

I wonder if the data is being skewed somehow, perhaps by different cultural
norms around women working, or something like that?

If anyone can shed any light on this it would be really interesting.

[0]
[https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Working_time#OECD_ranking](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Working_time#OECD_ranking)

~~~
TulliusCicero
IIRC the extra hours the Japanese work tend to go unreported.

------
bythckr
Gig Economy = legalised interns

intern = a person who works for free or next to nothing on the promise that
they will benefit in the long run, while you make sure that they get no
benefits and assign every demeaning job possible to them.

------
wordpressdev
While I agree to the points made in the article that workers in a gig economy
have little rights and less benefits than doing a full time employment, gig
economy was never supposed to be exact replacement of a permanent job.

If you live in a Western country, gigs like driving an Uber, doing a task
through TaskRabbit or providing service at Fiverr / Upwork can be considered a
modern day equivalent of waiting tables or babysitting. Obviously, if you
consider the later as full time jobs then you have to burn your a-- to make
the ends meet.

For those living in the developing countries, the gig economy is a gift from
skies. More and more people from Asia, Africa and parts of Europe are joining
the gig economy to supplement their income. Considering the cost of living in
these areas, they are even in a position to generate full time living from
doing these gigs. Not to mention the digital nomads who are escaping the
stressful lives in the US / Europe and traveling to less expensive regions -
living off gig economy.

Looking at the positives; gig economy gives you freedom to live your life. You
do not have to spend precious hours of the day in commute, waste time in
useless meetings, bear office politics and bend over to get a raise. Reduce
your expenses, get a few well paying clients, work when you feel like it and
enjoy your life.

All hail the Gig Economy ;)

~~~
1_2__3
What you are calling the gig economy in this case is really a service economy,
which existed long before cell phones or SF tech startup silliness. It's not
some amazing new step forward for humanity.

------
rejschaap
I don't really see the 'gig economy' as an alternative to regular jobs, which
is always implicitly or explicitly implied by these articles. If you need a
job, go find a job. If you are flexible, have some extra time, could use some
extra money, enjoy these gig tasks or whatever, find a gig task.

Obviously there aren't enough jobs to go around, this is not caused by the gig
economy. Some regular jobs don't pay well enough, this is also not caused by
the gig economy.

~~~
yummyfajitas
There are plenty of jobs. People just refuse to do them.

[https://www.chrisstucchio.com/blog/2016/robots_didnt_take_ou...](https://www.chrisstucchio.com/blog/2016/robots_didnt_take_our_jobs.html)

Aren't Trump's anti-immigrant attitude considered bad in part because we might
lose immigrant labor we are dependent on?

~~~
rejschaap
There is a difference between a job and "there is much work to be done".

~~~
collyw
Yes, its pay.

Just look around any developing country. There always seem to be people almost
begging for work, yet there seems so much more work that needs done -
infrastructure needing repaired, litter being cleared, healthcare...

------
llamataboot
Waiting for the inevitable HN critique about "voluntary work" and "why should
anyone have the right to tell someone else to work less" without a complete
understanding of what voluntary means in a world with massive structural
inequalities.

Or as the anarchists say, "Work 50 hours or starve" isn't a choice, it's a
threat.

(edit: nitpick misspelling)

~~~
beaconstudios
which is kind of ironic because in a state of anarchy like subsistence farming
you'd expect to work a lot more than 50 hours, and doing back-breaking manual
labour at that.

~~~
llamataboot
I'm not sure how much subsistence farming has to do with a socio-political
theory that primarily came out of 19th Century Europe/Russia and Modernity,
but sure, if that's your critique I don't want to derail the thread into a
discussion about what anarchism is/isn't

~~~
beaconstudios
it's just one example of a system of living that doesn't involve a central
government. I'm not an anarchist myself so tend to be extremely skeptical of
anarchist claims that a country with no police force would continue to be
"modern" for any stretch of time.

------
milesrout
The American economy celebrates working yourself to death, has for a long
time, and probably will for a long time.

Thankfully I'm not American and I'm not working in the US, so I don't care.

------
kelvin0
Yup, this is similar to a mentality I've seen celebrated in some Crossfit
cliques and it 'works' for a certain type of people. Until the imbalance
catches up to them and makes them re-assess their priorities
(injury,depression,sickness...)

------
JohnLeTigre
Typically 2/3rd of expenses in companies go into salaries. That's a huge chunk
of money.

Somebody finds a system that reduces the salarial expenses to zero and all the
hard-capitalists are over-joyed, secretly dreaming that they could apply this
model to their own business.

In the mean time workers, while owning the means of production, are still
liable to pay all the running expenses, to invest their time and work and give
a percentage to a stranger, for some odd reason.

This is a form of feudalism.

I am not anti-capitalist, but I fear that this form of economy on the long run
will not allow individuals to flourish economically through the merit of their
work.

~~~
fjdlwlv
The "odd" reason is that that the "stranger" makes a huge contribution. That's
why people weren't runnning nearly so many personal car services before Uber.

~~~
JohnLeTigre
It's an app

~~~
fjdlwlv
It's an app that no one made before. Why didn't they?

~~~
JohnLeTigre
It's illegal to taxi people around without a permit.

Look it up, gypsy cabs are not new at all. Most people kept a low profile and
stuck to their own ghettos though.

Anyways, the conversation is not substantive anymore, both of our points where
made.

------
coldtea
>The Gig Economy Celebrates Working Yourself to Death

As any respected free-market advocate will tell you, it's better than dying
from starvation.

Yeah, that's not a very high bar...

~~~
TeMPOraL
Yeah, the crucial observation here being, that in a civilized society, this
should not be the only choice you're presented with.

------
raverbashing
Ah Fiverr, the 'gives you a logo for 5 bucks' or 'a Wordpress site for (too
little)'

Epitome of race to the bottom

------
Mendenhall
I see many posts about the hours worked in USA. Whats slightly funny to me is
having grown up around people who lived through great depression and fought in
ww2 I often see USA as lazy these days.

------
willdotphipps
it's when the black cab driver and uber driver shake hands, make an app OWNED
by the drivers, that drivers get more dough and Uber go bust. Wouldn't be
difficult.

------
Kiro
How does this work with the minimum wage? It seems like whenever you get paid
per item instead of hour the minimum wage can be disregarded.

~~~
CodeWriter23
In America, minimum wage is for employees only. Once you're an independent
contractor, you can accept less than minimum wage for your work. This is
indicative that our asset-based economic recovery from the crash of '07 hasn't
done much for those who don't have hard assets. Namely the former paycheck-to-
paycheck members of the middle class, who walk past homeless encampments
wondering if the people living in tents and RVs are their future friends,
those who lost their homes after getting fooled into a subprime loan, and the
poor. Ironically, Uber will set you up with a subprime auto loan or lease
through their partners, payments taken from your weekly take, before you ever
see it of course.

------
maxxxxx
This ad reminds me of how the ruling class makes going to war as something
honorable and desirable although the people doing the actual fighting almost
never get any benefits from the wars. I guess the capitalists want to pull the
same trick selling working yourself to death for nothing as having valor.

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_pmf_
I don't know, those startup employees sure seem to have time to write lengthy
blog posts.

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Bombthecat
Human meat is cheap and plenty.

I don't think it will ever get better anytime soon.

~~~
curuinor
Many of the most loyal Soviet apparatchniks recognized that they got their
positions due to them being freed up by the various purges and such. Piketty
claims that the lowering inequality of the early 20th century that Kuznets
claimed was the natural consequence of capitalism was contingent - contingent
upon the orgy of destruction of the two great wars.

Kuznets claimed that there were cycles in capital allocation of a certain
type, in between some other's determination of characteristic scale, the
business cycle, the Kondratiev wave. This is probably not the case, and it's
just all a jumbling 1/f wave. So it might be 1 month till your statement
proves not to be the case, or 1 millenium.

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andreasklinger
Doesnt that ad target their clients and not their suppliers?

It's part of their "Entrepreneur campaign" \- using that cliche "entrepreneur
hustling"

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sheeshkebab
IMO, Excessive working is not a problem (if you are not forced to and can/want
to do it)...

getting paid $11/hour for it is the problem.

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lordnacho
I don't know if it was Mary's first baby, but she might know that it's not
terribly urgent to go to a hospital.

Even when your water breaks, the hospital will tell you not to come in
immediately. With my first kid it was like that, we had hours before anything
started happening.

A few minutes extra to drive someone doesn't seem all that bad.

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thedogeye
The Gig Economy Celebrates Working For Money

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ganfortran
Classy newyorker is good at criticising, but never good at offering
alternative. And the implied solution(opposite of being too much self-reliant)
is always the cliche rosy picture of bigger government and welfare society.

~~~
danieldk
_is always the cliche rosy picture of bigger government and welfare society._

...which works very well in Western Europe, where you don't have to worry
losing everything when you get ill, lose your job, etc.

I am in favor of a fair bit of (regulated) capitalism. But in the US people
are taught that capitalism is good and socialism is bad [1], and the industry
at large exploits it to get extremely cheap labor.

There is a life outside work.

[1] How universal healthcare can be bad is beyond me. The US spends more on
healthcare per capita than Western European countries and has worse outcomes.
See e.g.: [https://www.theguardian.com/society/2016/feb/09/which-
countr...](https://www.theguardian.com/society/2016/feb/09/which-country-has-
worlds-best-healthcare-system-this-is-the-nhs)

