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Silicon Valley Has Been Treating Workers 'Miserably' Since the 1970s, Economic Historian Says (recode.net)
Don't blame Uber for the problems of the gig economy -- they didn't start it, economic historian Louis Hyman says. Recode: "Uber is the waste product of the service economy," Hyman said on the latest episode of Recode Decode, a podcast. "It relies on a bunch of people who don't have an alternative." Hyman told Recode that the number of people who have to rely on temporary, freelance or other "alternative work arrangements" has been growing since the 1970s, when the era of bloated corporations gave way to businesses that optimized for short-term profits and began treating workers as disposable. "The alternative to driving for Uber is not a good job in a factory with a union wage or working in a stable office job, it's slinging coffee at a Starbucks where you may or may not get the hours you need," he said. "That is what people are shoring up. They're shoring up getting enough hours, trying to make ends meet. Oftentimes, people talk about the gig economy as 'supplementary income' ... It's not supplemental if you need it to pay for your kids' braces, or food, or rent." Hyman argued that this phenomenon could be traced back to the legions of undocumented migrant laborers who built early computers, before those manufacturing jobs moved overseas.
People will accept inhumane working conditions to be in on the ground floor of something big. It's too bad that 99.9999% of companies never turn out to be that "something big."
California is a communist welfare state that suffocates business with regulation, taxes, and worker rights.
California is a corporate welfare state that exploits workers to feed big business.
I think I first heard the term "Seattle Hundreds" about twenty years ago.
Fuck you, asshole. Trumps idea of fixing things is "viva la corporate America, and fuck workers in the ass, they don't matter". Shove a kilo of C4 up your ass and detonate it.
Fuck you, asshole. Trumps idea of fixing things is "viva la corporate America, and fuck workers in the ass, they don't matter". Shove a kilo of C4 up your ass and detonate it.
America uses imperial units, you ignorant clod.
Industry loves an unending flow of people too inexperienced to know that they are being taken advantage of. It wants people age 25-35 that it can grind up, spit out, and roll right over. Instead of focusing on working smarter, our industry has become a mill into which we pour youngsters and out of which fall cynical outsiders.
Alternative Right.
You either learn how to gain the upper hand in negotiation, or you become some employer's bitch. It's that simple.
If you have an in-demand skill, I recommend you learn how to use the word "no" until the people you're negotiating with tack on enough zeros. As sad as it is, it's a dog-eat-dog world, and you definitely want to be the dog with a full belly.
If you don't have in-demand skills, you'd better get on it or you'll continue to get shit on.
I don't see an Uber or Lyft driver as having a miserable life. A coal miner breathing in toxic dust has a miserable life. Diamond mine workers in Africa have a miserable life. Chinese factories workers outside of the biggest areas have a miserable life. Uber drivers can always find a new job. There's no forced labor here, in spite of low wages and long hours.
How come a democrats rebuttal to anything is "go kill yourself?" This is why Trump is going get reelected.
We can't all (hire a politician to) steal from our neighbors' paycheck.
No, but you can vote for Orangutang to steal it for you.
Nearly 63M of you did exactly that.
Trump gave us some of our money back, you clueless child.
"Tempers are wearing thin. Let's just hope some robot doesn't kill everybody." --Bender
"everyone be exclusive" is an oxymoron
"everyone go get a big slice of the pie" might be a more palatable frame, since you're five
Nice punctuation, brainlet. Keep flipping those burgers. It's honest work.
In the 1950s only white people had it good. Black people could not vote and were forced to pick cotton in the california plantations. Thanks to the democrats, it is not just black people who are treated like shit. It is an equal opportunity shit sandwich that we should all embrace to not be a racist.
Before the husband had to work long hours doing meaningless work to support a family. Now thanks to womens liberation we have both sexes working insane hours performing meaningless tasks to make money for bosses.
Progress
I joined the industry in 1976, starting as a depot-level tech at Data General gate-banging CPU boards, disk controller boards, etc. that had been swapped out in the field. At that time, every single part of every computer (except the core stack on core memory cards) was made here in America. Everything from the castings for the disk drive frames, through the manufacture and chip-stuffing of every single PCB used, to the special lights used on some disks for positioning to the discrete components (resistors, caps, etc).....EVERYTHING was made here, and those businesses - and associated suppliers - employed millions of people.
Today, other than some special mil-spec companies, ZERO electronics are made here. THIS is what brought us to this point: that either you're an app-appy developer or a low-tier drone with no room to grow. Basically, we've squeezed the piss out of the entire industry's middle with most of the rewards going to the Squillionaires and the rest of us left fighting over - Yes! As Pelosi said - "the crumbs".
I'm glad I got the chance to ride the wave long enough, but the tide has been going out for decades.
The problem with Uber is the number of people suckered into driving for them. People who aren't savvy enough to calculate the the true costs in terms of gas, insurance, depreciation, maintenance and traffic tickets that significantly eat into their wages. If less people were willing to work at these rates they would be forced to pay more. (If you are a student and Mom and/or Dad have paid for your car these costs are even less apparent. )
It's not Uber's fault that there are a lot of shitty jobs out there. Uber might not be perfect, but it's clearly better for some.
Yes, he probably will. Even if the Dems have a non-idiot running or planning the strategy, the walkaway thing seems to be getting some real traction. If the economy doesn't implode (thanks to the Fed and the prior three Presidents before Trump) it's likely already too late for the Dems.
Can we go back to shitting on systemd? I miss those days.
Employers Have Been Treating Workers 'Miserably' For Much Longer Than That, Better Historian Says.
Capcha: pinhead
Just because I hate the democratic party doesn't mean I won't probably vote for their candidate. Especially against trump
It just means I denounce SJWs, spastic, and attention whores. Which is essentially what trump is he's an authoritarian(SJW's for Rs), he's a fucking idiot, and he actually has a personal twitter account that he uses and cares about.
Trump is everything I hate about the democrats and I honestly believe they're getting worse in an effort to emulate republicans.
You said all the hard ways to get ahead.
Cheat Code: Identify people who are dumber and lazier than you and yet have better careers. Observe them. Do whatever you think has helped them.
Hard work of any kind should always be your last option. You'll never amount to anything with that bootlicking attitude.
The Grand Minds hsve long made the lion's share while crumbs go to the people who actually do the work. It is not exclusive to nor invented by Silicon Valley. Who knows the names of the team that put together the first Mazda? But we all know the name Edison.
No, he gave it to CORPORATIONS, you fucking retarded treasonous faggot liar.
"It relies on a bunch of people who don't have an alternative."
Surely that's not binary? There's a continuum?
Surely it's also not new?
They are coders / sociopaths and probably high level psychopaths they don't understand about what other ppl want nor do they understand how ppl work...
They will just MinMax all of the assets and that includes PPL, according to current rule-set.. It's not their problem nor their issue if the rules are what they are...
How are we even accusing them. Accuse the ppl who made the rules.. ouh wait it's the voters lol =D
was driving for them is taking out a pay day loan against your car. I know people who do this. Hyman or whatever is dead on.
Most people aren't doing this because they want to, they do it because they have no other options and are lucky enough to have a car (often one their parents bought them).
Trump was a Democrat for many years. Most recently he switched to blue while his arch nemesis was the senator of his state.
Actual tech employees are treated much better in Sillicon Valley than tech or non tech employees anywhere else. Granted you have to be not stupid enough to work for Apple. But in most places, there are smart managers who care more about your long term potential than making you slog on a given weekend. As for Uber drivers, you may want to consider their options before Uber. Why are they doing that job if they have something better lined up?
I when younger thought I was left but honestly I just was more anti-religion and the right were a bunch of "Do-as-i-say" hypocritical types which turned me off of their doctrine.
However as a talented programmer and gearhead, I just couldn't bring myself to move to California after reading about all the problems people who mod their cars have with the CARB rules. I literally avoided *numerous* jobs in the state because I couldn't spend the newly acquired cash to modify the hell out of a big V8 and drive that around. I love cars too much to have anything "different" be illegal so I often turned down job offer after job offer.
Ended up in Michigan happily making big money and wrenching on all my cars. I lived in Manhattan for awhile and did the whole "no car" thing and that was miserable so I came back. Wall Street paid well though for my C++ optimization skills, over double what MI pays me but I live 10 times better.
I realized it's easier to just stay away from the big city if you have chops and instead woo a small business who wants those skilled big-city types. I have a big house, many cars, on a lake, with a job I barely show up for while making north of 200K. I don't really want to go trudge through downtown parking or shuttles or any of that again. I would just rather make that money living the medium-town life instead.
In my opinion, Michigan is where it's at..... Blue collar everywhere so you don't feel as poor as NYC seeing Lambo's and Ferrari's every block plus their rich children. Small business everywhere supporting the auto industry with deep pockets, and a lack of talent since they all run to CA or NY to make big bucks. No smog checking so you can drive and modify whatever you want. And real crime from Detroit keeping the Police busy (read not bored and ticketing like crazy).
It's perfect here, especially if you have AI or Machine Learning experience as business is paying $$$ for that talent right now.
Yes, you are right, we should have invested in hi-tech manufacturing so we could have a few companies here that run on razor thing margins, employ a scant few people at high salaries, and are rapidly replacing every step of the manufacturing process with automated machinery. We would be far better off, indeed.
Look, it doesn't matter what you are manufacturing or what part of the world you are in. Manual labor jobs are 20th century jobs, and its all going away.
HA! I just wasted some of your bandwidth with a frivolous sig!
Industry loves to be collectively anthropomorphized? Industry isn't a being. It doesn't have feelings. Your line certainly has a 'Hollywood oppressed masses' romance about it, but saying that all Industry (perhaps you mean capitalists?) is just out to exploit workers is like saying all black people are lazy. It is just a sloppy generalization that doesn't hold much water.
Pick out specific bad actors and focus your attention there, ex: "Walmart is an exploitative company that deserves to burn in hell for all its shitty dealings with its workers."
HA! I just wasted some of your bandwidth with a frivolous sig!
I've never once seen a Union care if a worker quits. If anything the higher wages they bargain for benefit worker mobility. One of the key things that hurts worker mobility is that in the modern economy if you're an hourly worker your experience doesn't count for anything. When you quit you're starting over from scratch.
Right now we're seeing something never before: near full employment but wages are declining. Economists have mostly agreed this is caused by two things: Low wage jobs replacing high wages ones (factory jobs replaced with fast food & Walmart) and the end of collective bargaining reducing workers ability to negotiate better wages. Notice I didn't use the "U" word there. Neither do they. There's been a non-stop anti-Union propaganda campaign from the mega corporations (which, let's be real, own the mass media). So much so that you're not generally allowed to say anything as simple as "Wages are down because one guy on his own can't negotiate the same rates as half a million workers".
You don't have to take my word for it, just google what Walmart does everytime their employees try to Unionize. Or look at Disney, where the workers just got bumped to $15/hr because they organized. No Man is an Island. Collective bargaining works.
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"This week, State Assembly Republican Leader Chad Mayes called poverty California’s No. 1 priority during a forum of legislative leaders in Sacramento. Mayes, who represents parts of San Bernardino and Riverside counties, claimed the state’s poverty rate is higher than any state in the nation when considering factors such as cost-of-living."
We decided to fact-check whether the report Mayes cited really shows that California has the highest poverty rate in the nation.
Only the BEST for the 1%. The rest of you get the fuck back to work, you fucking peons.
captcha: monopoly
then go get yourself one them Corp'rations son
Or how about none of the above and think with the big brain instead of the little brain before seeing a dog on the street.
Speaking objectively, if there are less workers then they get bargaining power. Happend after the black death.
They're treated for what they're worth. Why should a computah weenie expect better treatment than real workers who bust their asses the whole day? Who cares about a bunch of pedo neckbeards. They are shit and they deserved to be treated like shit.
The golden era of tech is behind us. The industry has matured.
It is no longer run by, nor hires idealistic nerds. It is run by and hires the same type of people as the rest of corporate America: greedy, sociopathic, frat-boys.
Pedofile wants more money so he can buy more kiddie porn! Boo-hoo your jerb is going to China and never coming back, you deplorable redneck pedo.
Trump is going to die in prision. And u r going to die right along side him!
Heil Hitlary!
Down with the working class! Boohoo your jerbs are never coming back! Long live the oligarchy!
Heil Hitlary!