Classy newyorker is good at criticising, but never good at offering alternative. And the implied solution(opposite of being too much self-reliant) is always the cliche rosy picture of bigger government and welfare society.
The Gig Economy Celebrates Working To Excess
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Re: The Gig Economy Celebrates Working To Excess
#12Seems like in America it's hard to win. Either get paid not nearly enough and struggle to make ends meet, or get a high paid high stress job, still work all day and all night. Maybe we just have too much of that protestant work ethic?
I don't know.. I work about 15 hours a month opening up positions and closing them with my brokerage account. Have been doing this for a good 12 years or so now. Granted the earlier years were fraught with hard learned lessons that any newbee would make without proper mentorship.
To me, it just seems like too many see that initial hamster wheel and jump on without thinking much about things. Then again, they lack proper education. I'm not even sure if it's about teaching them how to trade and invest, instead people need to be taught how to think critically and break out of the victimization trend. Then again, I'm not sure if that will help things much either.
Re: The Gig Economy Celebrates Working To Excess
#13Ah Fiverr, the 'gives you a logo for 5 bucks' or 'a Wordpress site for (too little)'
Epitome of race to the bottom
Re: The Gig Economy Celebrates Working To Excess
#14Human meat is cheap and plenty.
I don't think it will ever get better anytime soon.
Re: The Gig Economy Celebrates Working To Excess
#15Classy newyorker is good at criticising, but never good at offering alternative. And the implied solution(opposite of being too much self-reliant) is always the cliche rosy picture of bigger government and welfare society.
I think I saw a report somewhere stating thad Danes are most happy to pay taxes—because they are happy what they gain in return. Also, there was a report recently, that happiest people are in Norway.
Maybe it is not fair to call all socially responsible arrangements "welfare society"?
Re: The Gig Economy Celebrates Working To Excess
#16Classy newyorker is good at criticising, but never good at offering alternative. And the implied solution(opposite of being too much self-reliant) is always the cliche rosy picture of bigger government and welfare society.
is always the cliche rosy picture of bigger government and welfare society.
...which works very well in Western Europe, where you don't have to worry losing everything when you get ill, lose your job, etc.
I am in favor of a fair bit of (regulated) capitalism. But in the US people are taught that capitalism is good and socialism is bad [1], and the industry at large exploits it to get extremely cheap labor.
There is a life outside work.
[1] How universal healthcare can be bad is beyond me. The US spends more on healthcare per capita than Western European countries and has worse outcomes. See e.g.: https://www.theguardian.com/society/2016/feb/09/which-countr...
Re: The Gig Economy Celebrates Working To Excess
#17Seems like in America it's hard to win. Either get paid not nearly enough and struggle to make ends meet, or get a high paid high stress job, still work all day and all night. Maybe we just have too much of that protestant work ethic?
I don't know.. I work about 15 hours a month opening up positions and closing them with my brokerage account. Have been doing this for a good 12 years or so now. Granted the earlier years were fraught with hard learned lessons that any newbee would make without proper mentorship. To me, it just seems like too many see that initial hamster wheel and jump on without thinking much about things. Then again, they lack pro…
You do realize your way of life can never become mainstream, right ?
Re: The Gig Economy Celebrates Working To Excess
#18Seems like in America it's hard to win. Either get paid not nearly enough and struggle to make ends meet, or get a high paid high stress job, still work all day and all night. Maybe we just have too much of that protestant work ethic?
Some might say "too much capitalism". I don't know many protestants.
If you mean "too much capitalism" as in "too little taxes for the rich, almost complete destruction of unions, too much power for lobbyists", then I think you're right. "Free market", democracy, government spending and unions are all imperfect, but they are IMHO all necessary counterbalances to the sheer power of money for a capitalist system that benefits most of the population.
Instead, for too long the ideology that The Market is perfect and self-regulating and automatically works for the greater good, while Government/taxes/regulations/unions are all evil, has triumphed.
Working to find a good balance is so much more difficult and so much less attractive than believing in a very well narrated oversimplification. But, instead of working in that direction (the good balance), lots of people are opting to believe in even worse oversimplifications - the ones that populists all over the West are spreading. Not an easy situation to fix.
Re: The Gig Economy Celebrates Working To Excess
#19Earlier quoted context omitted.
I don't know.. I work about 15 hours a month opening up positions and closing them with my brokerage account. Have been doing this for a good 12 years or so now. Granted the earlier years were fraught with hard learned lessons that any newbee would make without proper mentorship. To me, it just seems like too many see that initial hamster wheel and jump on without thinking much about things. Then again, they lack pro…
You do realize your way of life can never become mainstream, right ?
It can act as an additional revenue source thus allowing you to cut on the hours you work per week. If you can train yourself, or find a proper mentor. Though I think a proper mentor is the real bottle neck, so too many try to train themselves and lack the proper knowledge for where to start; too many go to CNBC to start..
If it became mainstream it would just mean more volatility which for me.. volatility is a good thing. Yet were not even close to that, not many trade. Which is fine too, adaptability is key. I think the "you can't" stuff really flows out to other areas of the economy, e.g. starting up etc. So we get into this thing were people don't even try, or they try and fail once and don't bother getting back up. Granted, having a family etc is problematic .. though I do know someone who failed thrice starting businesses while being a mother of 5. That has to be pretty challenging and seeing her persevere tells me many more can be successful if they get past the initial hurdles.
Re: The Gig Economy Celebrates Working To Excess
#20The Gig Economy Celebrates Working For Money