I think the fundamental premise of this article is wrong. The author seems to assume that the "side hustle" is on top of a full time job. But I think the intended implication is that uber drivers are for the most part people who do not have a full time job. They are semi-retired, or only working part time at another job, or between "real" jobs and working at uber to help make ends meet until they can find a new "real" job, or they're mostly househusbands or something like that.
“Side Hustle” as a Sign of the Apocalypse
91–100 of 148 posts
Re: “Side Hustle” as a Sign of the Apocalypse
#92I just took an uber ride where the driver told me she left her granddaughter's birthday party to drive people. Maybe she has different priorities than I would, but I think it's more likely that she's economically desperate enough that she has to miss those moments to make ends meet. As much as I like the service uber provides, I don't think we should pretend people are working for uber without duress.
Re: “Side Hustle” as a Sign of the Apocalypse
#93Earlier quoted context omitted.
Government is a fact of how humans think. Tech isn't going to change how our brains work.
No?
Check out how much cash the Clinton's and DNC poured into her campaign. A lot of good tech did there! /s
"The state is temporary"? How outlandish. The state will outlive you, and will crush you if the people don't use effort to coerce it in the right direction.
Tech might help or hurt a cause, but people will be the ones who are needed to win the day, not tech. But don't believe me; just watch who is getting inaugurated.
Re: “Side Hustle” as a Sign of the Apocalypse
#94Earlier quoted context omitted.
"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 hove…
We also have regulations because consumers do care about that kid, they just don't have the resources to care every time they make a purchase.
Which is why it's so problematic corporations violate regulations, either by outsourcing the violation or outright flouting the law.
It's literally exploiting the limited computational resources of consumers to bypass their expressed wishes.
Re: “Side Hustle” as a Sign of the Apocalypse
#95Call me a crank, but personally, I'm getting annoyed by people who love to blame tech companies for everything. "This unending hamster wheel of capitalism and technology is driving us all to the brink of insanity" Maybe that's true, but instead of blaming tech companies and brogrammers, maybe try taking a look in the mirror. You want to escape the rat race? Pack up your bags, move to bumfuck nowhere, and spend all yo…
> 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…
> If we all worked 3 days a week it would be enough to pay the rent. If we all worked 7 days a week it would be enough to pay the rent.
This is wrong. The reason rent is going up is because there's more demand than supply. Reducing the amount of money everyone has by a constant factor (in this case 3/5) will not change the supply/demand imbalance, so it won't solve the problem. Put another way: the reason rent is so high is to prevent some people from being able to purchase the product. There's not enough of it to go around. You're basically blaming the best known system for allocating scarce goods for the fact that scarce goods exist.
If you look at countries that try to act on the above notion, you'll find that high prices are replaced with impossibly long lines. And shortages. This is because reducing the price will only increase the demand for that good.
A better world view would be: if the baby boomers hadn't all had kids at the same time, we wouldn't be experiencing housing shortages. This theory (though incomplete) at least puts demand increases front and center. You could also blame cities for not allowing/supporting the construction of new housing. That theory (though incomplete) at least puts the supply shortages front and center.
Re: “Side Hustle” as a Sign of the Apocalypse
#96Earlier quoted context omitted.
It might just be due to the labor laws that define what a contractor and an employee are, and how taxi drivers and uber drivers are thus classified. You might check into those!
Your dismissive tone is not warranted. Look into the 20-point list the IRS uses to make the W2/1099 distinction yourself, and you'll find Uber drivers as far (or further) to the "contractor" side as many yellow-car cabbies are.
Except Florida, New York, and California have already ruled in several cases drivers due meet the employee classification.
Re: “Side Hustle” as a Sign of the Apocalypse
#97[deleted]
Re: “Side Hustle” as a Sign of the Apocalypse
#98Earlier quoted context omitted.
> They're doing it because they don't have any other good alternatives. So champion proposals that would grow the economy, create more jobs, increase the median hourly wages, and/or improve the social safety net. I don't see how vilifying Uber or AirBNB is going to help accomplish any of the above. P.S. There is no way for you as an individual to be a supplier on the Seamless, but that still hasn't spared them the au…
> 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…
> If we accept these conditions as the norm
What conditions are you referring to? The ability to work when you want for as long as you want? The ability to take an otherwise idle asset like your car or your house and make extra money with it?
Anecdotally, I've taken dozens of Uber rides and never once heard the driver complain about Uber. I have, however, heard many drivers complain about proposed legislation that will harm Uber.
Re: “Side Hustle” as a Sign of the Apocalypse
#99> Next, we’ll just start saying bipolar people have a side personality.
…is this drawing an analogy between periods of mania and depression being like a change of personality, or is the author confusing bipolar disorder for dissociative identity disorder?
It seems like a cheap joke in either case.
Re: “Side Hustle” as a Sign of the Apocalypse
#100Earlier 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…
> If we all worked 3 days a week it would be enough to pay the rent. If we all worked 7 days a week it would be enough to pay the rent. This is wrong. The reason rent is going up is because there's more demand than supply. Reducing the amount of money everyone has by a constant factor (in this case 3/5) will not change the supply/demand imbalance, so it won't solve the problem. Put another way: the reason rent is so…
Rents are set by wages, prices by credit.
http://i.imgur.com/oWxV1po.jpg
People live in one home, whether we work 3 or 7 days. You are confusing cheaper products garnering more demand with a flat need. This is why we should tax land: the supply is constant.
Demand is up due to financialization of housing by the banks and greedy landlords are their foot soldiers.
Edit can submit no more due to the usual HN censorship so this last edit for the guy below:
You are just talking across me with no regard to my point at all. The graph is from the ft and the y axis is linear, it's from 2012 with no cutoff due to a change in trend.
I'm not saying don't compete, my earlier post stated that when we all work more or smarter in aggregate the banks take the gains and we all end up running to stand still. That was my point.