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from the work-like-a-dog-/-fingers-to-the-bone-/-nose-to-the-grindstone dept.
Mary’s story looks different to different people. Within the ghoulishly cheerful Lyft public-relations machinery, Mary is an exemplar of hard work and dedication—the latter being, perhaps, hard to come by in a company that refuses to classify its drivers as employees. Mary’s entrepreneurial spirit—taking ride requests while she was in labor!—is an “exciting” example of how seamless and flexible app-based employment can be. Look at that hustle! You can make a quick buck with Lyft anytime, even when your cervix is dilating.
[...] 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. And yet this type of faux-inspirational tale has been appearing more lately, both in corporate advertising and in the news. Fiverr, an online freelance marketplace that promotes itself as being for “the lean entrepreneur”—as its name suggests, services advertised on Fiverr can be purchased for as low as five dollars—recently attracted ire for an ad campaign called “In Doers We Trust.” One ad, prominently displayed on some New York City subway cars, features a woman staring at the camera with a look of blank determination. “You eat a coffee for lunch,” the ad proclaims. “You follow through on your follow through. Sleep deprivation is your drug of choice. You might be a doer.”
[...] At the root of this is the American obsession with self-reliance, which makes it more acceptable to applaud an individual for working himself to death than to argue that an individual working himself to death is evidence of a flawed economic system. The contrast between the gig economy’s rhetoric (everyone is always connecting, having fun, and killing it!) and the conditions that allow it to exist (a lack of dependable employment that pays a living wage) makes this kink in our thinking especially clear. Human-interest stories about the beauty of some person standing up to the punishments of late capitalism are regular features in the news, too. I’ve come to detest the local-news set piece about the man who walks ten or eleven or twelve miles to work—a story that’s been filed from Oxford, Alabama; from Detroit, Michigan; from Plano, Texas. The story is always written as a tearjerker, with praise for the person’s uncomplaining attitude; a car is usually donated to the subject in the end. Never mentioned or even implied is the shamefulness of a job that doesn’t permit a worker to afford his own commute.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by The Mighty Buzzard on Friday March 24 2017, @04:10PM (11 children)
There are over five million skilled labor positions out there in need of filling. Most of them are going to pay very well compared to unskilled labor in the area. Of course this doesn't fit your narrative so you'll refuse to believe it.
My rights don't end where your fear begins.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday March 24 2017, @04:25PM (10 children)
And by all reports the unemoyment rate is way higher than that, so we're still short millions of jobs. Oh wait, that doesn't even begin to account for the many more millions of shit jobs out there. So some people could get better jobs, but the vast majority will still be plagued by poverty level wages. There are so many other aspects to this problem but trashing your shitty logic is a good start. I can't hope for you to understand the more complex pieces... Simple math will have to suffice.
Thank you azuma for the harsh words, they don't help the discussion but they make me feel better. Its hard debating with evil ideology while trying to remain civil.
(Score: 4, Insightful) by Azuma Hazuki on Friday March 24 2017, @04:37PM (3 children)
I don't believe in "remaining civil" with people like this. They sacrificed their humanity in the red-hot hands of whatever Moloch-idol it is they worship, and are intrinsically opposed to us now. They are monsters, and there is only one thing to do with monsters.
I am "that girl" your mother warned you about...
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Friday March 24 2017, @07:45PM (2 children)
post angrily about them online
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday March 24 2017, @08:08PM
And go totally silent except for snide remarks once you can no longer come up with a credible argument.
(Score: 2) by Azuma Hazuki on Friday March 24 2017, @08:32PM
You jest, but in my experience, this kind of self-centered sociopath can't stand ridicule. They're never going to change, and as this is a battle of ideas, the weapons are a sharp tongue and a sharper insight. There is no saving them; fight them.
I am "that girl" your mother warned you about...
(Score: 3, Interesting) by Sulla on Friday March 24 2017, @08:38PM (5 children)
Job is a job. Want to make 15/hr? Move to california and work in the fields, that is now the going rate in the wine regions.
I have friends with STEM degrees who can't get jobs in their fields and end up working multiple manual labor jobs to get by.
The fortunate thing with the US economy is that it is easy to get by. I got by just fine on minimum wage part time five years ago, I just lived without luxuries.
Ceterum censeo Sinae esse delendam
(Score: 5, Insightful) by Zz9zZ on Friday March 24 2017, @09:08PM (4 children)
"It worked for me so obviously there is nothing wrong with it!"
Mmhhmmm, that is the critical flaw in a lot of thinking. People such as yourself only see your own situations, and since everything ended up relatively OK you see nothing wrong with the various problems. Not everyone can get to a successful decent paying career. Some people have to support families. Others maybe have medical costs. There are a whole host of reasons, but renting a small room, barely able to afford decent food, and zero discretionary spending are not exactly selling points for minimum wage. If you have zero obligations other than your immediate food/clothing/shelter then you can probably find a way to make it work. But god help you if you get sick, lose your job, go in debt, etc. etc. etc.
Maybe if these people would stop buying iPhones they could afford health insurance!!! /s
~Tilting at windmills~
(Score: 2) by Sulla on Friday March 24 2017, @11:25PM (3 children)
Given the current cost of health insurance under the affordable care act compared with the cost of an iphone and call/data, that is a completely valid request.
I am not going to be blind like a boomer and say everything is great, because its obviously not. I was unemployed for close to a year when my kids were born because of how shitty things are. For the girl described in the article I am upset that she can't find a better opportunity, where I get mad is the people in my age group (20s) that would rather do nothing than work fast food/retail. "Worked for me" is 60k/yr with a wife and two kids and free housing because I am taking care of a relative with alzheimers. If I lose my job I'm fucked, but I can always sell my car and bike to Krogers for work.
I dont exactly live in SanFran or Seattle, but all along the West Coast we have transients who can get by on the streets begging and causing trouble rather than work those jobs. The agg sector in Cali is doing bad because they can't find people to work for 15/hr. I would work these jobs, my parents did, my grandparents did. These people in their 20s that wont work do have smartphones (dont know how) and have nice cloths, yet also shit on the street and use up valuable public resources that the true destitute actually need.
Maybe programming is different, maybe I just luck into stuff like a boomer, but I have never worked for someone that did not have opportunity for advancement if you worked hard enough. Working as a lot guy at a car dealership and doing it well got me an opportunity to work in their Accounting department (turned it down), working at a rental lot gave me (six years later) the chance to buy that same lot and pay an employee four times what I made doing the job because I consider it fair, working in government showed me that anyone who lucks in will get advanced if they arent lazy, working for temp agencies showed me that work ethic led directly to more job offerings.
Yeah it sucks. Yeah we have a worse standard of living than our parents. Yeah im tired of boomers calling us shit for not lucking into great jobs out of high school. Yeah the health system sucks. Yeah corporations suck. Yeah robots suck.
Our generations lot in life is being ruled by uncontrolable corporations, but at least we arent dying in Nam/Korea/Europe/Europe/Plague/Conquring the west/Cholera/On a ship/Famine/Cholera/Fire.
Ceterum censeo Sinae esse delendam
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday March 25 2017, @05:06PM (1 child)
Yes there are whiny entitles idiots who won't take an available job, but that doesn't actually cover the scope of the problem. There is a massive wage gap problem the spans the entire "middle class". I also earn $60k and being single and living with minimal costs I am barely able to save up any money!! So a "good" salary is hardly enough to safely support a family.
$15/hr is the bare minimum people in California need just to get by. There is a real reason why tent cities have popped up all over, housing prices are outrageous.
(Score: 1) by khallow on Sunday March 26 2017, @11:26AM
I also earn $60k and being single and living with minimal costs I am barely able to save up any money!!
I earn a third what you do and I'm able to put away more than half my income. Income is important. But so is controlling your expenses. I learned the hard way, living single in California as well, that while things like rent are enormous, there's other large expenses that you can incur. Like I was burning a lot of money on eating out for lunch, of all things.
$15/hr is the bare minimum people in California need just to get by. There is a real reason why tent cities have popped up all over, housing prices are outrageous.
I see one solution right away. Live somewhere else.
I hope you aren't thinking that we should create a high global minimum wage just because California is expensive.
(Score: 2) by Zz9zZ on Saturday March 25 2017, @06:47PM
Stop trying to normalize the bad things in life. Yes things can be worse, that doesn't mean you should blame the people being oppressed.
~Tilting at windmills~