131–140 of 160 posts
What about paywithatweet repurposed so you pay for digital goods with some Turking? Categorise 50 images and get your favourite local band's latest MP3. $1.90 to the band, $0.10 to the intermediary as their cut.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
lol, you must be in lala land. There are millions of poeple in the United States of America that live in Third World Country like conditions. Unless you're willing to empty your bank account and help them out, this is way it is. That's how the USA got started, that's how China is getting started, that's how Dubai got started. That's reality. The world is not perfect, a shitty job is better than no job.
Sure. Pretty soon I bet we'll hear some suggestions - all backed up by hard data, mind you - to reinstate slavery, only this time around it will be voluntary. After all, slave owners fed and clothed their slaves. It will certainly be an improvement over the way some people are living now, so that's a win-win, right? Then some people will say that slavery is wrong, plain wrong, whether it's voluntary or not, and wheth…
Also, in your attempt to achieve "perfect" you will end up achieving nothing.
I understand your thought process and it DOES make sense but we are not living in a perfect world, we are living in capitalism. And if you don't pay poor people in America a few pennies to type in "cat" next to a picture of a cat, that business owner will go to another country and get them to type "cat" next to a picture of a cat.
In the perfect world this wouldn't be an issue, there would be a world wide minimum wage but there isn't. So we have to stick with what works, not what's perfect. Not what's right. Not what's correct. But what works at the moment. That's what the world was built on.
For all the success that micro-lending has had in India and other countries, we haven’t really seen those benefits in American Urban areas. I thought the USA had "micro-lending", but they were called "payday loans"?
Payday lenders have a significantly higher interest rate - on the order of 500-2000% of the principle per year. The purpose of it is to put the screws on people who aren't able to get loans elsewhere. Micro lending has more of a humanitarian goal - most organizations tend to lend at reasonable rates (3-15%/year).
Payday shops charge reasonable fees per loan, the same fees that all vendors and governments charge for you hanging on to money they want from you. The problem is that payday loan customers get trapped into taking excessive numbers of loans, multiplying fees.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Because this won't improve their lives one bit. Proof by assertion is not terribly convincing. Not every transaction that is marginally beneficial to both sides is movement towards a global optimum "Marginal" is more than zero bits. Think about this: is this suggestion going to provide the poor with true social mobility? I could easily see that happening. Is this something our society can be proud of - poor people wo…
I don't consider actively exploiting the poor as "not improving their lives enough". Neither do I consider marginal benefit a positive if it comes at the cost of exploitation. Thirdly, I don't see anyone moving from selling drugs to doing menial mechanical turk work. Lastly - I'm not standing in anyone's way. By all means - go and try to turn America's poor into Silicon Valley's drones rather than invest in their fut…
You seem to ignore that Everything derives from work. It gives the poor a way to earn a living, an activity to count on, some sense of being independent (instead of relying on welfare), and it enables them to save (even a little) money. It makes them responsible. It provides them experience that they can build on to become better at what they do and aspire for something a little more advanced. Most poor people who work do not stay at the bottom of their society for their whole life. Work is an effective social ladder, and where we stand right now is the downright proof of it.
"Exploitation" is only a matter of point of view. What you see as exploitation is not an universal, tangible truth for everyone in this world.
For all the success that micro-lending has had in India and other countries, we haven’t really seen those benefits in American Urban areas. I thought the USA had "micro-lending", but they were called "payday loans"?
Payday lenders have a significantly higher interest rate - on the order of 500-2000% of the principle per year. The purpose of it is to put the screws on people who aren't able to get loans elsewhere. Micro lending has more of a humanitarian goal - most organizations tend to lend at reasonable rates (3-15%/year).
Payday shops charge reasonable fees per loan, the same fees that all vendors and governments charge for you hanging on to money they want from you. The problem is that payday loan customers get trapped into taking excessive numbers of loans, multiplying fees.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Ah, now we arrive at the real nut of anti-Libertarianism: paternalism. The notion that somehow adults are not capable of making their own decisions. This is our fundamental disagreement. To me, impoverished, indigent people struggling to make ends meet are fully capable of making their own decisions. People fondly recall stories of their immigrant ancestors working hard and struggling in order to provide a better lif…
Sorry, buddy. What you're describing isn't libertarianism. Libertarianism must first of all advocate true liberty, including liberty from exploitation, and if it's not the government's job to enforce this freedom, then you must advocate the exploited's right to fight the exploitation, even through violent means, because exploitation is a form of violence as well. That people under extreme duress do not really have th…
Earlier quoted context omitted.
...to reinstate slavery, only this time around it will be voluntary. Go look up the definition of slavery. Your post is internally contradictory.
Even if entered into voluntarily, without an opportunity to exit slavery is still the correct term.
I will do him one better. How about he opens a storefront with locked down machines that do nothing but mechanical Turk and rents them out for 1 an hour. Maybe wow gold farming . Anyone have an concerns about the ethics of this? On one had 6 net is better than 0, on the other hand it is fairly predatory.
Why lock them down? Why not just rent computers for $1/hr, like at a cyber cafe? That is a solved problem.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
I hope you are wrong about this. And my tone is more than slightly hysterical - I am downright panicking. If Ayn-Randian ideology has taken over the hearts of young Silicon Valley startup entrepreneurs, and if that is the current way of thinking in Northern California of all places, then we've got a problem. But I think you're wrong. I think what we're reading here is not a heartfelt, confident business or social ide…
There is a strong Randian thread in SV culture, as there is in most communities where overprivelege mixes with social awkwardness, but it doesn't dominate. Plenty of other folks believe in doing well by doing good.