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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: 5, Interesting) by Scruffy Beard 2 on Friday March 24 2017, @05:42PM (3 children)
In Europe, animals apparently have more rights than humans do in the USA:
- U.S. Lags Far Behind Europe in Protections for Farmed Animals [aldf.org]
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday March 24 2017, @05:56PM (2 children)
And if you wonder why the US fails humanity compared to the EU care of animals then look no further than TMBs extensive posts this morning. The culture that led up to his existence is pervasive and they use some type of Darwinian social selection that turns humans into predators / prey. It is a reversion back to our animal heritage, and often one done out of greed
"I put this company together I deserve all the goodies!"
"What about the many employees that actually did the work you put togther?"
"I paid them what I think is fair and they accepted the job, they weren't the grandmaster who designed this awesome company!!!"
"Selfish prick"
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Friday March 24 2017, @06:45PM (1 child)
If you hate him so much and his culture, but it is the prevailing culture where he is, why the fuck do you want to change the whole place rather than going to another place that is already to your liking?
TLDR: If you don't like it, leave.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday March 24 2017, @08:04PM
I have thought about it, but family / friends and the fact that the culture is changing. I would rather fight to make my own country better rather than move somewhere else and let them burn it all down. The US culture also gets spread around, so it is in the world's interest for us to change.
To Godwin this thread: Why fight the Nazis? Why not just let them do their thing? Oh right, cause they're power craving lunatics who will try and destroy anything they disagree with. Fascists are trying to rise up in the US, they've been trying for a long while, and bullshit inhumane work ethics are the start. "I work hard so why should any of my money go to someone else?" It is deeply flawed narrow minded bullshit that dehumanizes people and make sit increasingly easy for the population to detach enough that they commit genocide.