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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.
California has extremely high worker mobility and that is key to success.
Non-competes are illegal. (This is key. Noncompetes murdered the 'silicon valley' of other states right in the cradle. Being able to hop jobs promotes the sharing of ideas and enables employees to advocate for what's in their own best interest)
SV companies are largely union free (Unions aren't all pro-labor. They're mostly pro-incumbent-labor and are detrimental to worker mobility.)
California is generally pro immigration, and that labor supply is key to growth.
California is an at-will employment state (Employers can let you go with no notice, for any reason other than reasons that are illegal under labor law) which further increases worker mobility. (Companies don't have to hold on to employees they don't need or want and are free to hire ones they do)
Lefties tend to see immagrant labor is exploitative of the worker, when in reality these people are simply more free to fill the labor demand as the market needs. This leads to growth and California's huge economy is proof. Restrictions on labor distort the market and harm workers because demand is not met.
The far-right tends to see immigrant labor as labor being stolen from natives, when in fact the extra labor is needed to fill demand. If the native workforce was able to fill demand importing labor would not be necessary. Restrictions on labor distort the market and harm workers because demand is not met.
California is not a lefty paradise/hellhole as many portray. It's a healthy centrist combination of pro-labor and pro-business that's made the region one of the largest economies in the world.
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.
It seems that you're living in that Conservative SimplisticFantasyLand where workers can easily acquire new skills while at the same time living decently, raising a family, negotiating with bosses who actually give a bubbly fart about investing in their own employees....Keep reading that Ayn Rand crap, but it fails the Reality World test...BIGLY!
Nope. Just thought and planned ahead. You do know that kids and families are preventable, right?
When I see job insecurity called "labor mobility", my BS meter goes up. You pegged it and then smoke started coming out!
The far-right tends to see immigrant labor as labor being stolen from natives, when in fact the extra labor is needed to fill demand.
This is called Schrödinger's Immigrant.
Simultaneously doing nothing but collecting welfare and stealing your job at the same time.
The shepherds did so well protecting the flock that the sheep no longer believed that wolves existed.
If the native workforce was able to fill demand importing labor would not be necessary.
The native workforce is able to fill demand; many employers do not want to pay them American wages to do so.
Imported people are used to artificially change the market and depress wages.
It wasn't that long ago when the common expectation was that you would graduate, then get a job you would be at until you retired. It wasn't that uncommon that jobs becoming obsolete would be vacated mostly through attrition or the workers would be retrained to fill another position at the same company. Many employers felt a duty to their loyal employees.
That was the social contract.
These days, it's not that uncommon to be laid off and end up doing the same job somewhere else.
As long as the world won't let me plow my yard for cropland and go hunting in the neighborhood, it does, in fact, owe me an alternative.