Domain: streetwise.co
Stories and comments across the archive that link to streetwise.co.
Comments · 10
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Re:Uber will die on its own
As soon as everyone realizes that fact that most Uber drivers actually LOSE MONEY when you figure in the low rates they pay people combined with the total cost of driving for them (insurance, gas, auto maintenance, etc) most honest figures come up with either less than minimum wages or you are actually losing money on the deal.
I've been reading variations on this theme for years with respect to Uber, yet in looking at the Uber app during lunchtime on a Monday, I see nine vehicles within five minutes of my location.
How is it that such a supposed money-losing proposition finds so many willing drivers? And why is it that every Uber driver who I have asked about his or her income has told me that the money is decent? It is a clearly a popular first or second job, with many using that money to meet their monthly expenses. You'd think that if everyone lost money in the first month as a driver, the word would quickly get out and no one would be driving for Uber. And yet they do.
In the meantime you can read about how Boston cab drivers rent cabs for their daily jobs and have to pay up for the car loan at the end of each work day (a form of worker exploitation that pales in comparison to anything that Uber or Lyft does), and no one bats an eye, because hey, it's a taxi company, and they "obey the law".
Let's just say I'm skeptical in the extreme about the Uber-hatred that permeates the tech press. I use Uber (and Lyft) all the time, and it is always a pleasant, efficient experience that appears to benefit both the drivers and the riders. Because if it wasn't, it would have gone out of business long ago.
And consider this: even if Uber does not survive, ride-sharing is here to stay. After multiple bad experiences with taxis in cities all over the country, I will always choose a ride-sharing service over a traditional taxi. Crush Uber if you can, but more companies just like it will spring up to replace them, and they will have many willing customers ready to use them.
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Huge GE/Walsh plan to centralize power, tax scam
I work a few blocks from the proposed HQ site and there are construction cranes in all directions, & there is plenty of demand for office space in Fort Point and excellent freeway access due to Big Dig exit at convention center. We already have enough Internet of Things meetups believe it or not.
Muckrock and the Boston Institute of Nonprofit Journalism tried to raise $1700 demanded by the mayor's office for reproducing the GE emails. But who needs emails when the charm offensive has begun? BINJ did a five-part series on the scheme.
These crony style one-off deals are always terrible economics. The "free market" certainly will fill that space very soon. There is no lack of demand, instead tons of local money already develops this area. In Jan 2015 a parking ramp in Fort Point sold for $56 million or $106,500 per spot!
As noted above many in the population are furious #MakeGEpay protesting in the freeze of last weekend's clipper. (Mayor Walsh was elected with 52% on 38% turnout). The schools are facing a $50 million shortfall, students walked out just a few days ago partially protesting this.
In this deal they don't have to pay regular taxes, instead they get to muck around in the local school system with all the purse strings attached as the press release makes clear. Instead of letting the city get normal tax revenue and the School Board allocate money for programs GE gets to basically do what it likes, as the press release clearly specifies.
Sen. Sanders said they are "destroying the moral fabric" of the USA. Boston Magazine reported in January:
"GE isn't exactly a shining model of corporate conduct. The company is one of most notorious abusers of offshore tax havens, with $119 billion stashed away across 18 overseas locations as of 2015. Democratic presidential hopeful Sen. Bernie Sanders once named GE the nation's top corporate tax avoider. From 2002 to 2011, GE eliminated a fifth of its U.S. workforce while its offshore profits multiplied sixfold to $92 billion."
Do you really think that some of these Beacon Hill luminaries haven't been looking forward to a taste of that offshore $119,000,000,000?? The centralization of decisionmaking in the schools, by withholding program revenue, is unfolding in parallel to this incredible offshore tax scam. Maybe they want Ft Point Channel access to float in barges of cash, why not? I am disappointed none of this important info is in the story summary.
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Huge GE/Walsh plan to centralize power, tax scam
I work a few blocks from the proposed HQ site and there are construction cranes in all directions, & there is plenty of demand for office space in Fort Point and excellent freeway access due to Big Dig exit at convention center. We already have enough Internet of Things meetups believe it or not.
Muckrock and the Boston Institute of Nonprofit Journalism tried to raise $1700 demanded by the mayor's office for reproducing the GE emails. But who needs emails when the charm offensive has begun? BINJ did a five-part series on the scheme.
These crony style one-off deals are always terrible economics. The "free market" certainly will fill that space very soon. There is no lack of demand, instead tons of local money already develops this area. In Jan 2015 a parking ramp in Fort Point sold for $56 million or $106,500 per spot!
As noted above many in the population are furious #MakeGEpay protesting in the freeze of last weekend's clipper. (Mayor Walsh was elected with 52% on 38% turnout). The schools are facing a $50 million shortfall, students walked out just a few days ago partially protesting this.
In this deal they don't have to pay regular taxes, instead they get to muck around in the local school system with all the purse strings attached as the press release makes clear. Instead of letting the city get normal tax revenue and the School Board allocate money for programs GE gets to basically do what it likes, as the press release clearly specifies.
Sen. Sanders said they are "destroying the moral fabric" of the USA. Boston Magazine reported in January:
"GE isn't exactly a shining model of corporate conduct. The company is one of most notorious abusers of offshore tax havens, with $119 billion stashed away across 18 overseas locations as of 2015. Democratic presidential hopeful Sen. Bernie Sanders once named GE the nation's top corporate tax avoider. From 2002 to 2011, GE eliminated a fifth of its U.S. workforce while its offshore profits multiplied sixfold to $92 billion."
Do you really think that some of these Beacon Hill luminaries haven't been looking forward to a taste of that offshore $119,000,000,000?? The centralization of decisionmaking in the schools, by withholding program revenue, is unfolding in parallel to this incredible offshore tax scam. Maybe they want Ft Point Channel access to float in barges of cash, why not? I am disappointed none of this important info is in the story summary.
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Re:It really doesn't matter
Romney vs Obama is a single data point. Just because money didn't win that election, doesn't mean that money doesn't generally win elections.
What we do know is that 91% of the time, candidates who spend more win, at least for Congress. We don't know if there is a causal link, or it's just a correlation, and the real cause is something else. But to bring up Romney is completely disingenuous.
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Re:With Uber at least there is tracking and identi
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Uber: It's UBER Safe!
Seven Year Old San Francisco Girl Struck and Killed By Uber Driver; Uber Denies Responsibility http://www.sfgate.com/bayarea/...
Boston Uber Driver Charged with indecent Assault and Battery http://www.bostonglobe.com/met...
Off-Duty LA Uber Driver Accused of Sexual Assault http://www.bizjournals.com/los...
Chicago Uber Driver With Felony Conviction Charged With Battery For Allegedly Hitting Passenger http://www.forbes.com/sites/el...
Writer and Activist Reports Being Choked in DC; Uber Denies The Event and Responsibility http://valleywag.gawker.com/ub...
DC Uber Driver Allegedly Assaults Customer for Burping http://www.washingtoncitypaper...
San Francisco Uber Customer Claims Abuse and Assault by Uber Driver (Pando) http://pando.com/2013/11/25/ub...
Passenger Struck In Head With Hammer by UberX Driver http://www.forbes.com/sites/el...
Uber Driver Pulls Gun on Valet in Atlanta http://pando.com/2014/09/08/at...
Uber Driver Punches Passenger in Oklahoma http://newsok.com/oklahoma-cit...
Lyft Driver Attacks Pedestrian in San Francisco http://www.nbcbayarea.com/news...
Lyft Driver Brandishes Knife in Los Angeles http://www.laweekly.com/2013-0...
Uber Customer Sues for $2M over Alleged Driver Stabbing in DC http://dcinno.streetwise.co/20...
DC Uber Driver Allegedly Rapes Customer http://betabeat.com/2013/03/ub...
Uber Driver Charged with Fondling Passenger in Chicago http://valleywag.gawker.com/ub...
DC Uber Driver Arrested for Alleged Rape But Not Charged Despite Strong Evidence http://www.washingtonpost.com/...
Another DC Uber Driver Accused of Molesting Uber Rider http://valleywag.gawker.com/an...
Passenger Struck In Head With Hammer by UberX Driver http://www.forbes.com/sites/el...
Uber Driver in India Accused of Rape http://www.bbc.c
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Re:Extradition?
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Re:bullshit
You're (I believe inadvertently) painting an inaccurate picture when it comes to Tesla's stance towards unions. Even if they are neutral towards employee unions (more on that in a minute), NADA is still one of the largest unions in the automotive industry, and has made no bones about the fact that they are opposed to Tesla's business model. Unions have been attacking Tesla from the start and continue to do so even now. Factory employee unions may not be a part of the fray yet, but they're hardly the only type of trade union.
Moreover, on the topic of employee unions, Musk may say he's neutral, but Tesla's actions make it clear that it is hardly neutral. From another article (emphasis mine):
Musk's opinions on unionization aren't clear. When he announced the Fremont factory's purchase from Toyota, Musk told The Chronicle that "on the question of the union, we're neutral." [...]
Tesla's last annual financial report struck a far less welcoming note. It listed the possibility of union activity under "risks" to the business.
"The mere fact that our labor force could be unionized may harm our reputation in the eyes of some investors and thereby negatively affect our stock price," reads the report, filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. "Additionally, the unionization of our labor force could increase our employee costs and decrease our profitability, both of which could adversely affect our business, prospects, financial condition and results of operations."
[...] Other Tesla managers, [UAW President Bob] King said, seemed to be opposed. Musk, he said, was "very open and said he would respect what the workers wanted. But his operating management has done the opposite."
And, contrary to your claims regarding Uber, it has been facing issues from trade unions, namely taxi, limo, and other professional driver unions across the country that have been campaigning extremely hard to keep Uber out. I'll grant that they are almost entirely operating against Uber at the city and state level, but that pressure on the governments is originating from the unions. Without the unions campaigning, the city governments likely wouldn't be getting involved at all.
That said, I do agree with you that the summary grossly missteps by suggesting that the issue of state-level protectionist regulators has much of anything to do with the complaints of small-government folks.
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Boston has solar powered trash cans, too.
Okay, technically, they're trash compactors, so that they don't have to go and empty them as often:
http://www.cityofboston.gov/pu...
That seems to make more sense to me than a 'solar powered bench' which looks to me to be two seats as the whole middle of it's taken up by a box. (which might be the point -- it'd be less comfortable for a homeless person to sleep on it)
I've seen other solar "urban furniture" that made more sense to me -- things like bus stops w/ solar panels in the roof (to power lighting, up-to-date bus info
... and sometimes advertising).I've seen other 'solar phone charging stations' that make more sense to me than having it take up 1/4 of a bench:
http://inhabitat.com/nyc/solar...
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Re:Stay away
Management is centered around playing favorites and politics. The CEO doesn't believe in HR and only hired people to do HR duties (under bullshit techie titles) after they started screwing up things like maternity leave.
It's one of the main east-coast homes of brogrammers
Here's how QA works at HubSpot:
- Moron ships broken untested code to production
- The entire company falls down, including sales and marketing thanks to all the dogfooding
- Marketing, the real power arm of the company (it is a marketing company, after all), pitches a fit
- Dev decides to create a QA team
- Testing slows down new feature rollouts
- Marketing complains that new features aren't rolling out fast enough and pitches a fit
- QA gets shoddy, then all the QA devs are moved out of QA, fired, or treated like shit until they leave
- Moron ships broken untested code to production, 20 GOTO 10If you're a Ruby dev, don't even bother. Almost every Ruby dev, even those good enough to work outside of Ruby, got flushed out. Philosophical issues.
Looking for challenging, interesting problems to work on? All of HubSpot's problems involve how to expand and improve invasive tracking of people who visit its customers' sites and how to run email right up to the bleeding edge of CANSPAM.
Company is fully invested in perks that keep you in the office late (the old Web 2.0 beer fridge/ping-pong/pizza party trifecta) and peer pressure to keep you from going home or not working weekends, and frames their lack of benefits as benefits ("unlimited vacation" = no vacation, no parking or transit stipend = "bike friendly").
I hope you have Twitter, Facebook, and G+ accounts, and you use them frequently and have followers, as that's part of the interview process and you're expected to post and re-post whatever management tells you to post and re-post.