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posted by
martyb
on Thursday January 24 2019, @01:34PM
from the Hit-rock-bottom-and-keep-digging-dept dept.
from the Hit-rock-bottom-and-keep-digging-dept dept.
You know how it is, it's a Saturday so you go out into the garden for a quick interface with nature before the next 10 hr Fortnite / Netflix combo binge to find your dog has left numerous piles of digested food all over the place. What do you do? Get online to AirTasker to post a job requesting someone come over to pick up the shit. Yes, seriously, that's what they do these days when help is just a click away. Need a pack of ciggies but are "too unwell" to go get them for yourself? Airtasker! Need a couple of vibrators in a hurry? Yep, someone on there will help you. For a price. Just when we thought with Facebook that humanity had hit rock bottom. How low can we go?
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Online job Boards Prove Humans can be Even Lazier
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(1)
The aim of science is to seek the simplest explanations of complex
facts. Seek simplicity and distrust it.
-- Whitehead.
(Score: 2, Touché) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday January 24 2019, @01:42PM (4 children)
I would use something like Airtasker if I ran out of booze/smokes to order more rather than driving. Currently I just get an uber/lyft but that is a waste since I need to travel both ways.
(Score: 3, Informative) by AndyTheAbsurd on Thursday January 24 2019, @02:24PM (2 children)
You didn't mention where you were located, but the US equivalent would be Postmates [postmates.com] for getting things delivered to you and TaskRabbit [taskrabbit.com] or Fiverr [fiverr.com] for getting other things done, depending on whether or not you actually need your labor to be local.
I'd guess there's equivalents in the EU and other reasonably developed places, but I'm not familiar with any.
Please note my username before responding. You may have been trolled.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday January 24 2019, @04:30PM (1 child)
Just tried out postmates for some food and it was an awful experience. The restaurant says food was picked up but I never recieved anything and the driver is not getting any closer according to the map. Also, they have no phone support, only email. I think I am going to end up cancelling this transaction through my bank.
(Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday January 24 2019, @06:05PM
Yea, it appears the drivers stole my order twice. They did cancel it and give me a ten dollar credit.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by hemocyanin on Thursday January 24 2019, @07:00PM
I wonder about the legality of the smokes/booze issue -- is the person just a delivery person or is this a situation where they are resellers? I think if I was doing this type of work I'd be very careful about regulated items.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday January 24 2019, @01:58PM
More of anything is never enough, humans quickly adapt and want more, captured by :
Give an inch and they take a mile.
Greed has no bounds.
The world is not enough.
(Score: 5, Insightful) by nobu_the_bard on Thursday January 24 2019, @02:08PM (8 children)
You pay someone to do it though, right?
Humans have always done such things. In the old days I'd have paid a neighbor's kid to do it maybe. Technology just made it easier and communications made it more public.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by JoeMerchant on Thursday January 24 2019, @02:45PM (5 children)
In our town I've seen a pickup truck with "wrapped" advertising for a dog waste yard cleanup service - I couldn't resist, looked up the website, they want to sell you a subscription service for what seems to barely cover 5 miles of driving (@ $0.55/mi) plus 30 minutes' minimum wage per bi-weekly "pickup."
🌻🌻 [google.com]
(Score: 4, Interesting) by JoeMerchant on Thursday January 24 2019, @02:49PM (3 children)
Actually, they seem to be not rare at all: https://www.google.com/search?source=hp&q=dog+waste+cleanup+service [google.com]
🌻🌻 [google.com]
(Score: 3, Informative) by nobu_the_bard on Thursday January 24 2019, @03:12PM (2 children)
Yeah there's a ton of these services.
Actually the housing authority near here contracts one such. That might seem strange, and I asked a lot of questions about it because I'd have liked a new PoE switch or two instead, but these guys work at scale and focus on efficiency - the guys clean up several large properties on a regular basis. It's unskilled part-time work that employs people otherwise hard to employ (students, illiterates, etc), which is also in the authority's interests. The guys themselves also do work for some of the neighbors apparently.
The housing authority has limited resources to stop the messes, as at least some of it is from people in neighboring properties at night (the new security cameras have gotten a few people fined at least) and some of it is wild animals; the authority takes what preventative measures it can, but there's only so much you can do within reason. The authority's maintenance crew are too valuable to waste time on this. In the end, a periodic visit by the "shit crew" keeps the lawn looking presentable for a decent cost.
(Score: 2) by JoeMerchant on Thursday January 24 2019, @03:55PM (1 child)
Yeah, I bought a house once that had periodic giant turds appearing in the fenced backyard - it was a mystery for a few months until I saw the giant opossum.
🌻🌻 [google.com]
(Score: 2) by krishnoid on Thursday January 24 2019, @06:43PM
And you call yourself a nerd? It's right there in its entry in the Monster Manual.
(Score: 1, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday January 24 2019, @03:06PM
There are some out there with variants on the name Call of Doody.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by PartTimeZombie on Thursday January 24 2019, @07:06PM
I would have one of the footmen do it.
I would ask the butler to organise it though, because I don't talk to the footmen.
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday January 24 2019, @07:47PM
In the really old days, you'd have a slave do it. Most of the ancient civilizations' economies were built on slavery.
Nowadays we're above all that, of course. Our economies are just built on getting as close to slaves as we can, with barely paid workers in sweatshops in Asia, or illegal immigrants paid under the table in the west.
I wonder if the yellow vests folks in France are shouting "Je suis Spartacus!"
(Score: 1, Disagree) by realDonaldTrump on Thursday January 24 2019, @03:15PM
It's called a JOB. People don't know this, nearly 5 million jobs created since our great Election Victory -- far greater than ever anticipated, and only getting better as new and greatly improved. Some very cushy, very nice jobs. And some, not so cushy. Not so nice. 💩💩💩 Possibly you get poop on your hands. Or other places. But, it's work. It pays. Do it and be happy!!!!
And by the way, I'm working very hard. Trying my best to create some great Infrastructure Jobs. We have guys building our Wall. 👷 And we'll be looking to hire a lot more. Once we get the money!! 💸
(Score: 5, Insightful) by Rosco P. Coltrane on Thursday January 24 2019, @04:05PM (4 children)
I'll come to your house and pick up your pooch's shit, for a flat fee od $150 + travel expenses. Still interested?
Humanity has hit rock bottom because the gig economy is 21st century wage slavery, not because it exists at all. Someone needs a way to unionize all gig economy workers the world over, and it's because that very thing is next to impossible to achieve, and because poverty is on the rise, forcing the needy to accept any rotten deal, that rock bottom has been hit.
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday January 24 2019, @04:20PM (1 child)
yes. never before has anyone picked up shit from the streets, and everybody was perfectly happy that way.
well, except for the constant disease and dying, but whatever. they were real MEN, who had honor and didn't pick up no shit.
(Score: 4, Funny) by Thexalon on Friday January 25 2019, @01:22AM
"Whose that there?"
"Dunno, must be a king."
"Why?"
"He hasn't got shit all over him!"
The only thing that stops a bad guy with a compiler is a good guy with a compiler.
(Score: 4, Informative) by NotSanguine on Thursday January 24 2019, @04:33PM (1 child)
You're trying promote a narrative that has no basis in fact.
That there are poor people is absolutely true. And there are way too many of them as well. What's more, crap jobs/the gig economy are definitely depressing incomes.
However, poverty isn't on the rise. In fact, it has been dropping for centuries, with especial progress over the past 30 years. 200 years ago, almost everyone lived in poverty. In 1990, just 37% lived in extreme poverty. As of 2017, just 10% of the world's population lived in extreme poverty.
So no. Poverty is not on the rise. Just the opposite.
Not globally:
https://ourworldindata.org/poverty-at-higher-poverty-lines [ourworldindata.org]
https://worldpoverty.io/ [worldpoverty.io]
And not in the US:
https://www.census.gov/library/stories/2018/09/poverty-rate-drops-third-consecutive-year-2017.html [census.gov]
No, no, you're not thinking; you're just being logical. --Niels Bohr
(Score: 3, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Friday January 25 2019, @01:09AM
The interesting thing about that USA graph is, you see when poverty rate turns from a steady decline to treading water up/down/up/down/up/down (thus raising some questions about your thesis...)
I looked down at the X axis and lo and behold that was right around 1968.
The thing is I'm actually very curious about is if a Keynesian capitalism/socialism hybrid actually does get around Marx and is actually sustainable. 1968 seems to be the year the ruling class abandoned the socialist parts of the economy (new deal, welfare, etc) and went into full retard neoliberal mode. The problem with neoliberalism is that then capitalism becomes completely governed by Marx again.
(Note: Trotsky and Luxemburg may have shown that capitalism is always doomed to abandon the working class gains the social-democrats made and begin a toboggan ride measured in decades instead of years. Specifically, Luxemburg haunts us when capitalism runs out of room to expand to.)
(Note: capitalism is the most appropriate system for parts of the world right now. It could be that only some countries are ready for socialism in 2019. Hopefully I don't oversimplify. Capitalism will turn a peasant class into a proletarian class, and socialism is incompatible with a peasant class. (For example, a peasant class is uneducated and illiterate, but a proletarian class has some degree of education and nearly universal literacy.) However, if capitalism does not give way to socialism, eventually it experiences decay back to feudalism, and the peasant class emerges again.)
(Score: 5, Insightful) by NotSanguine on Thursday January 24 2019, @04:16PM (3 children)
WRT food, smokes, beer, etc.
Where I live, I can have any or all of those things delivered to my door 24/7 and the delivery person is happy to get the US$3.00 (US$4.00 if it's particularly cold or nasty out).
And it's just a phone call away. I could do it online, but that would mean getting up off my fat ass to open a browser.
And I can do so for more than just that. House cleaners, plumbers, hookers, drug dealers and all manner of other products and services. This isn't new, nor is it particularly interesting. I guess the suburban troglodytes are finally getting what us urban troglodytes have had all along.
No phone app, you might ask? Nope. See, I actually *like* talking to people. And when you have positive verbal interactions with people, they tend to treat you better and are more likely to do better if they see you as an actual human. I know, I know, that's just crazy talk.
Here's a new and novel concept: having conversations with people. It's never been done before. I feel a patent coming on.
No, no, you're not thinking; you're just being logical. --Niels Bohr
(Score: 4, Insightful) by bob_super on Thursday January 24 2019, @05:54PM (2 children)
If only someone could gather a listing of the local companies, and deliver it to your doorstep at least once a year, you wouldn't have to open a browser ever !
I suspect that would be a fairly big book. But maybe advertising could pay for it, and it could get recycled as a fire started, shooting target, or maybe even something to prop things up?
Nah, it will never work.
(Score: 2) by NotSanguine on Thursday January 24 2019, @06:07PM (1 child)
Very good. They used to leave stacks of them in the vestibule of my building, but it's been at least ten years since they did that.
No, no, you're not thinking; you're just being logical. --Niels Bohr
(Score: 2) by SunTzuWarmaster on Friday January 25 2019, @01:41PM
I sometimes think of the mobile/pre-mobile world.
This morning, I got up, read the newspaper on the toilet. I then took some of the papers from my outbox, rifled through them, and composed a memorandum to a colleague. I then put on some records for my progeny to enjoy while dressing.
The "book of local service providers, supported by ads" business model went *directly* to the internet without modification.
(Score: 5, Funny) by takyon on Thursday January 24 2019, @05:28PM (1 child)
Job listings aren't real.
[SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 2) by c0lo on Thursday January 24 2019, @09:12PM
Job listing ARE real - just look at fast food [soggy.jobs] or caffes [soggy.jobs]**
The listed jobs aren't.
** not spam, just a bug report. Hear, MDC?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
(Score: 3, Touché) by danmars on Thursday January 24 2019, @05:34PM (2 children)
I can't believe I'm the first to say this, but the game is "Fortnite" not "Fortnight".
(Score: 4, Funny) by takyon on Thursday January 24 2019, @06:13PM
ficksed
[SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday January 25 2019, @02:16PM
When you find my care factor tell it I said hi
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday January 24 2019, @11:34PM
Anything like that in Canada?