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“Side Hustle” as a Sign of the Apocalypse

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Re: “Side Hustle” as a Sign of the Apocalypse

#81

Post by wybiral »

mkolodny wrote: post #71
ithinkinstereo wrote: post #53

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I don't see how vilifying Uber or AirBNB is going to help accomplish any of the above. These companies are part of a greater force eroding the role and rights of labor. I think it's right to vilify the "sharing" company - especially with the type of "this is great for the world" propaganda that they spew out. If we accept these conditions as the norm, they will only continue to slide. We have laws and regulations f…

> You'd be surprised how many are doing this full-time because they can't find employment elsewhere... Isn't it a good thing that companies like Uber are creating jobs? Particularly for people who can't find employment elsewhere.

Where did all of their jobs go? Also, aren't they experimenting with self driving vehicles so that those people don't have to work those kinds of jobs?

Re: “Side Hustle” as a Sign of the Apocalypse

#83

Post by branchless »

neffy wrote: post #75
branchless wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> And if you don't want to do any of the above, that's fine too Most people have no choice on this. They have to work and it's just to subsist. Typical of hacker news that this would be the most up-voted comment. Regarding tech, the main change tech has brought is to allow very accurate tracking of debt. Most debt is created through land. Surplus value goes to the landlords and banks. Before this was not completely e…

Close, but not quite. > Banks scale up fiat money creation in response The US money supply approximately doubles every 10 years, it's remarkably consistent modulo the occasional hiccup. https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/M2 You're right, that that the markets will reprice very quickly, and roughly speaking the more there is (stuff, workers, etc.) the lower the price will be. This would be much less of a problem if mo…

I think we should cut this at the source. I never like taxing bad things where alternatives exist, let's just stop banks creating money. They should be intermediaries of funds not creators.

https://bankunderground.co.uk/2015/06/30/banks-are-not-inter...

I think it's not possible to stop land speculation so it should be taxed to pass the gains onto the people. As most money is issued against land let's have a land value tax.

Secondly let the state decide how much money can be created each year via an agreed growth target, set by...look away now if you are a neo-liberal zealot...the state. Thirdly use LVT to provide an efficient basic income and to do away with income tax. Why do we tax work? We tax carbon to stop people emitting carbon.

The current "system", if one can even confer such a name on such a dog's dinner, is insane.

Regarding US M2, do we really have step jumps in productivity? Is it not reasonable that we see this trend upwards in a smooth(-ish) fashion? If so then bank issuance tracks productivity gains, no?

#### EDIT #####

Will have to stop posting now as whenever I post about finance and question banks hacker news emits a fake "you are submitting too fast" message which I just got now replying to a different thread about zsh on a different page.

I also cannot edit my top level comment two above this.

What a great platform for debat HN has. Clearly they are confident in their model of lending and taking a cut and someone posting conflicting information that questions usury is no threat to them at all!

Re: “Side Hustle” as a Sign of the Apocalypse

#84

Post by ohnotthatguy »

m0llusk wrote: post #33

That a few companies use investor capital to screw customers and service providers alike says pretty much nothing about Silicon Valley. It is sad this guy saw an ad that offended him but why did he watch it in the first place?

One of the innumerable problems with advertising is that you can't "unsee" it. For instance: can you unread this reply to your comment? To suggest that it is the responsibility of an individual to ignore advertising in their environment, is to suggest that it is their responsibility to not pay attention to their surroundings, or read any signs. I think it is a perfectly natural reaction to see something that you understand to be a sardonic misrepresentation of a reality, and respond negatively.

Re: “Side Hustle” as a Sign of the Apocalypse

#85

Post by l33tbro »

branchless wrote: post #80
dvt wrote: post #18

What the article misses is that consumers drive startups like Seamless and Uber up the totem pole. Sure, some have more money than others, but clearly, if Seamless is succeeding then it must've hit a nerve. I mean I don't live in NYC, but whenever I'm there, I honestly hate it. It feels like the biggest concentration of assholery in the entire US. And I'm not saying this like some hippie pot-smoking LA liberal (becau…

Uber is getting a lot of its "efficiency" over regular cab companies by side-stepping regulatory burdens. People are riding uber because it's cheaper or they can deliver a better service at the same price point because they have the comparative advantage of lower regulatory burdens. You can't infer from this that people are voting with their heart. They are voting with their wallet, which is to say they are existing…

To add to your points, Uber is currently operating at a loss (1) due having so much runway. Once they've smited your local cab company, do you really think they're going to maintain bargain fares?

(1) http://www.businessinsider.com.au/uber-2016-losses-2016-8

Re: “Side Hustle” as a Sign of the Apocalypse

#86

Post by dvt »

timr wrote: post #78
dvt wrote: post #18

What the article misses is that consumers drive startups like Seamless and Uber up the totem pole. Sure, some have more money than others, but clearly, if Seamless is succeeding then it must've hit a nerve. I mean I don't live in NYC, but whenever I'm there, I honestly hate it. It feels like the biggest concentration of assholery in the entire US. And I'm not saying this like some hippie pot-smoking LA liberal (becau…

"It feels like the biggest concentration of assholery in the entire US." I guess you haven't been to San Francisco. Take what you hate about New York, and wrap it with a thick layer of smug, futurist, "we're saving the world" self-adulation. At least in the 80s, the leveraged buyout assholes weren't trying to convince people that they were making the world a better place. Gordon Gekko was a satire . Now he's a "growt…

> OK seriously, dear HN: just because consumers want something doesn't make it good. Consumers want dirt cheap electronics, but don't want to think about the Chinese kid who is getting lead poisoning from his "side hustle" of pulling e-waste apart with his teeth. Consumers want to pay a bit less for their burrito, but not worry about the illegal immigrants who cooked it, and are being evicted from their five-man hovel in the Mission to make room for luxury condos. Capitalism doesn't optimize for "good". It optimizes for profit.

I think that's really worth thinking about. And I guess that was kind of my original point. Startups like Seamless are around because everyone in NYC is kind of a dick, maybe self-absorbed, etc. We should focus fixing that root problem, instead of solving it with some panacea.

Re: “Side Hustle” as a Sign of the Apocalypse

#87

Post by jsz0 »

I'm not even sure what I'm supposed to be upset about here. Working more to make more money isn't necessarily a bad thing. It's certainly the most realistic option available for people who want or need more money. Money solves a lot of problems in life. Money can make your life better. If there was a $30 minimum wage or universal income many people would still choose to work more if the option was available. You shouldn't assume the hamster on the wheel isn't enjoying the experience.

Re: “Side Hustle” as a Sign of the Apocalypse

#88

Post by branchless »

l33tbro wrote: post #85
branchless wrote: post #80

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Uber is getting a lot of its "efficiency" over regular cab companies by side-stepping regulatory burdens. People are riding uber because it's cheaper or they can deliver a better service at the same price point because they have the comparative advantage of lower regulatory burdens. You can't infer from this that people are voting with their heart. They are voting with their wallet, which is to say they are existing…

To add to your points, Uber is currently operating at a loss (1) due having so much runway. Once they've smited your local cab company, do you really think they're going to maintain bargain fares? (1) http://www.businessinsider.com.au/uber-2016-losses-2016-8

Yeah I kind left that out as it's their choice how they spread their gains and losses over the medium term. I agree it's likely a monopoly play but it doesn't feed straight into my point about their "efficiency" coming from a non-level playing field. One can debate if taxis should be registered or not however those stating that uber is more efficient are not comparing like for like.

Even that is a side-point to my main comment stating that credit expands to capture new productivity via land and that tech has made a marginal activity possible such as uber part-time-drivers has given access to more credit for early entrants which then forces everyone to "earn more" so that they can all bid more and pay greater interest on greater loans to the bankers.

And you can be as productive as you like because the bankers keyboards are not going to run out of zeros any time soon.

How do banks create money, and why can other firms not do the same? An explanation for the coexistence of lending and deposit-taking:

http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1057521914...

Re: “Side Hustle” as a Sign of the Apocalypse

#89

Post by toomuchtodo »

jsz0 wrote: post #87

I'm not even sure what I'm supposed to be upset about here. Working more to make more money isn't necessarily a bad thing. It's certainly the most realistic option available for people who want or need more money. Money solves a lot of problems in life. Money can make your life better. If there was a $30 minimum wage or universal income many people would still choose to work more if the option was available. You shou…

> You shouldn't assume the hamster on the wheel isn't enjoying the experience.

Where to begin to describe how out of touch this comment is with working class America.

Re: “Side Hustle” as a Sign of the Apocalypse

#90

Post by mehwoot »

mkolodny wrote: post #71
ithinkinstereo wrote: post #53

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I don't see how vilifying Uber or AirBNB is going to help accomplish any of the above. These companies are part of a greater force eroding the role and rights of labor. I think it's right to vilify the "sharing" company - especially with the type of "this is great for the world" propaganda that they spew out. If we accept these conditions as the norm, they will only continue to slide. We have laws and regulations f…

> You'd be surprised how many are doing this full-time because they can't find employment elsewhere... Isn't it a good thing that companies like Uber are creating jobs? Particularly for people who can't find employment elsewhere.

Isn't it a good thing that companies like Uber are creating jobs?

Are they, overall? Are they expanding the total amount of money paid out to workers in this industry? I'm not so sure that's the case.

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