SoylentNews is people
SoylentNews
Submitted via IRC for AndyTheAbsurd
What would happen if low-wage workers came together to cut out the middleman and build their own platforms? This isn't just a thought experiment. Worker-owned apps are already providing real alternatives to dismal working conditions in the global gig economy.
This discussion has been archived.
No new comments can be posted.
Worker-Owned Apps Are Trying to Fix the Gig Economy's Exploitation
|
Log In/Create an Account
| Top
| 45 comments
| Search Discussion
The Fine Print: The following comments are owned by whoever posted them. We are not responsible for them in any way.
New crypt. See /usr/news/crypt.
(Score: 1) by khallow on Wednesday November 20 2019, @09:25PM (8 children)
(Score: 2) by ikanreed on Wednesday November 20 2019, @09:51PM (3 children)
Have you tried googling the exact phrase "the abuses of the gig economy" [ycombinator.com] because even that hyper-specific search finds results documenting them.
(Score: 1) by khallow on Wednesday November 20 2019, @10:41PM (2 children)
It doesn't matter to that poster that the delivery contractors do indeed have a choice and their "abuse", such as it is, has nothing to do with their employee or contractor status. In the second quote, the poster just pulls some stuff out of their ass.
No one is "effectively forced" to do tax fraud (how would that work anyway?). And notice how the flimsy pretext "if you don't control your own customer relation" is used as an excuse to claim the driver isn't a contractor. The IRS doesn't use that as the standard (and who is the customer here? Uber or the passengers?). Once again, a lack of any abuse from the gig economy combined with demands to treat contractors as employees.
My view is that law shouldn't protect your business model any more than it should protect traditional or gig economy businesses. Uber, Deliveroo, and such don't exist because of some hypothetical exploitation of the employer-employee relationship, but because they're delivering services that existing businesses couldn't due to a combination of cartel behavior and lack of infrastructure.
(Score: 2) by ikanreed on Thursday November 21 2019, @07:04PM (1 child)
That's just the result from googling, the actual abuses are in the youtube video that page is a discussion of.
(Score: 1) by khallow on Thursday November 21 2019, @10:51PM
What hasn't been shown that "someone is losing out" and "standards of living are being put under pressure".
After all, what's the gig worker doing otherwise? They're not going to choose to work this, if they had better work (by whatever criteria they use) available. Nor are the people buying gig services considered. These things have considerable value.
(Score: 2) by dry on Thursday November 21 2019, @06:37AM (3 children)
Breaking the law can result in legal consequences? Even at that, there are lots of people willing to sell drugs as a part of the gig economy.
(Score: 1) by khallow on Thursday November 21 2019, @04:16PM (2 children)
What's the abuse that's due to the gig activity being a gig? For example, in the US, the laws that make selling drugs illegal with all kinds of creative and often illegal (in particular, civil asset forfeiture) are the problem not the gig nature of drug dealing.
(Score: 2) by dry on Saturday November 23 2019, @05:20AM (1 child)
People operating as taxi's without the correct professional drivers licensing and the resultant lack of insurance so that even if the driver is not at fault, the driver and passengers may not be covered. Even in those cases where the driver does have a drivers license for driving a small bus/taxi, there's a good chance they haven't the proper insurance.
The problem with the drug dealing gig economy is the lack of quality control leading to thousands of deaths, mostly due to people being poisoned by not getting the advertised product.
(Score: 1) by khallow on Saturday November 23 2019, @01:06PM
Outlawed markets aren't regulated markets.