Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

The Gig Economy Celebrates Working To Excess

newyorker.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

171–180 of 445 posts

Re: The Gig Economy Celebrates Working To Excess

#171

Post by tracker1 »

beaconstudios wrote: post #129
zelos wrote: post #84

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The NHS in the UK seems to cost about $3,000/year/person. Admittedly, that probably needs to go up by $500-$1000 to provide a better service, but that seems to be comparable to federal spending in the US already?

the level of service that the NHS provides is pretty poor for people with ongoing conditions. They're great for providing emergency treatment but if you require ongoing treatment you will likely get much, much better service from BUPA or another health insurer. One thing the NHS does really well is providing downwards pressure on health insurers' rates though.

Frankly, what I wish would have happened here would have been to gather up all the federally funded healthcare initiatives and create a government owned, non-profit healthcare corp to cover the same people (va, medicare, medicaid, federal employees, etc). To provide for downward pressure and a baseline for private insurers to compete against... allowing anyone to get a private policy from said corp.

Would likely have cost less, reduced redundant agencies and staff, and had a chance at making things better.

Re: The Gig Economy Celebrates Working To Excess

#172

Post by kikimaru »

vanviegen wrote: post #157
readittwice wrote: post #140

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why should Americans bother to have a passport? Their country is so huge, probably more than you could visit in a lifetime. Deserts, mountains, cities, ... In Europe countries and the continent are smaller, Vienna for example literally has 3 other countries in commuting distance. It is quite obvious that you are more likely to need a passport here in Europe. A much fairer comparison would be to only count Europeans t…

You don't actually need a passport to travel within the EU. Just a European id card. Still, most people I know do have passports, but that might tell you more about my particular bubble than anything else.

No point in an ID card when a passport is only slightly dearer, but more useful.

Re: The Gig Economy Celebrates Working To Excess

#173

Post by Asooka »

grabcocque wrote: post #75

All very interesting theories, but the US isn't an amazingly hard working nation by global standards. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Working_time

Yes, but how much vacation do you get, how much do you work and how much do you pay for your health in order to have the standard "two adults + two children" normal lifestyle? I'm just thinking that maybe these numbers are brought down by people working very little for scraps.

Re: The Gig Economy Celebrates Working To Excess

#175

Post by ZeroGravitas »

cmdkeen wrote: post #98
supremesaboteur wrote: post #44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Doesn't federally funded healthcare system have problems like lower quality of healthcare, increased government spending, increased chances of corruption and creating a moral hazard of not working to earn what is consumed ?

The UK still allows private healthcare so those who really want to pay extra can do so. In several areas, for instance emergency medicine, there isn't a private offering and others the NHS has the centres of excellence available to all based on need. While our emergency system is often at the point of creaking it at least isn't anywhere close to American levels of having to deal with what should be primary care probl…

"While our emergency system is often at the point of creaking it at least isn't anywhere close to American levels of having to deal with what should be primary care problems."

How much of this "creaking" is intentional underfunding or political meddling by politicians looking for a payday from American medical insurance companies when they ruin another nations healthcare is debatable.

It's very similar to recent Trump moves of putting people who hate what a government department does in charge of that same government department. Jeremy Hunt the former Health Secretary previously called for the NHS to be replaced with an insurance system. So how can you trust that he's not trying to achieve that goal by crippling the existing system?

Re: The Gig Economy Celebrates Working To Excess

#176

Post by Asooka »

coldtea wrote: post #55

>The Gig Economy Celebrates Working Yourself to Death As any respected free-market advocate will tell you, it's better than dying from starvation. Yeah, that's not a very high bar...

Dying from starvation shouldn't happen on an Earth as abundant with resources as this one. Okay, at some point you can't hunt and gather food for yourself any more, but is that dying from starvation or dying from old age?

Re: The Gig Economy Celebrates Working To Excess

#177

Post by _ywdj »

Pyxl101 wrote: post #118
wiz21c wrote: post #86

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What you describe about really winning/loosing is inequality. I generally think that inequality is bad for populations (you may disagree, but usually, those in favor of inequality are those on the right side of it)

I recommend reading: http://paulgraham.com/ineq.html Inequality is the result of people earning different amounts, such being compensated in proportion to the value they generate - rather than everyone earning the same irrespective of that. Inequality is the result of reaping the rewards of your own work: someone is more effective, so they earn more. Why is it bad? How can any market economy even function without it?…

I used to buy into PG’s “inequality is not a problem” argument.

More recently I’ve come around to embracing the notion that peoples’ emotional state regarding their relative place in society and their future prospects is as important as their absolute standard of living.

Sure, as it's been argued by PG and many others, in material terms even the poorest in modern western societies are far better off than wealthy people of hundreds of years ago.

But everyone still has some degree of need to better themselves, improve their circumstances, and aspire to live more comfortably and prosperously. And crucially, the ability of young people to find a partner and have a family is strongly influenced by their prospects for upward mobility.

So if societal inequality is such that a young person trying to make their way in the world sees no opportunity for meaningful improvement of their circumstances, and therefore no real prospects for finding a good partner, raising a healthy family and achieving a good level of status in society, then the motivation to remain part of mainstream, productive society can easily be lost. This is what leads to people "dropping out" and ending up in a life of unemployment, depression, substance abuse, crime, violence, etc.

So, sure, some level of inequality is inevitable and healthy, to the extent that it rewards people for effort and ingenuity and gives people something to aspire to. But too much inequality becomes more of a de-motivator and a source of resentment, and can cause societal breakdown, and I think this is what is happening to some degree across the western world.

Re: The Gig Economy Celebrates Working To Excess

#178

Post by spiralx »

ZeroGravitas wrote: post #156
TulliusCicero wrote: post #116

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Tokyo's definitely cheaper than the bay area or NYC, but it's still not exactly cheap. The median monthly rent is low, but you have to figure that the median apartment is tiny by American standards.

So many comments about big houses, I'm wondering if buying a big house in the suburbs that you have to commute hours to work from and therefore rarely enjoy is (to quote Homer Simpson) both the solution and the cause of all America's problems.

It's certainly a problem that American suburbs lack the local services that typically exist in European cities, which is currently exacerbating the issue of suburban poverty:

https://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2015/01/suburbs...

Re: The Gig Economy Celebrates Working To Excess

#179

Post by kamaal »

pyrale wrote: post #170
Pyxl101 wrote: post #118

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I recommend reading: http://paulgraham.com/ineq.html Inequality is the result of people earning different amounts, such being compensated in proportion to the value they generate - rather than everyone earning the same irrespective of that. Inequality is the result of reaping the rewards of your own work: someone is more effective, so they earn more. Why is it bad? How can any market economy even function without it?…

> Inequality is the result of reaping the rewards of your own work: someone is more effective, so they earn more. Why is it bad? How can any market economy even function without it? Let us make an experiment and drop Paul Graham in a rainforest to see how much value he manages to extract. Then, once he has starved to death or died from some random infection, let's think again what makes IT jobs more valuable than gar…

We can't have a debate from the position of exceptions.

The point he and Mr Graham are trying to make is simple. People are not same, and by that definition are not equal.

The fact is that this inequality manifests itself in far more different ways before it appears as income/wealth inequality.

Far before some one is rich and poor, they are good and bad at playing the piano, writing a book, programming or anything for that matter. Wealth inequality comes far later.

Re: The Gig Economy Celebrates Working To Excess

#180

Post by ptero »

seanhandley wrote: post #59

As a European (used to free healthcare, statutory maternity leave, and 25 days paid leave per year) it shocked me on first visiting America how third-world it actually feels regarding what people consider a "normal" work/life balance. People work incredibly hard, long hours and often with very little to show for it. It's surreal.

There are pros and cons to both models, e.g. I think recent french experiment with mandated 35hrs (I think) work week backfired pretty badly.

I live in the US and know more than one person working a 6/6 cycle (6 month of work, 6 month of rest and travel) which they would never be able to do with old, rigid work arrangement.

I think for skilled workers with skills in demand flexible work options can offer huge benefits. For cashiers and conveyor workers it's the other way.

Post reply on HN