No this is not specific to the "gig" economy. Too much concentration of ownership in any kind of business is serfdom for non owners.
'The Gig Economy' Is the New Term for Serfdom
11–20 of 278 posts
Re: 'The Gig Economy' Is the New Term for Serfdom
#12Serfdom is not a good comparison. Serfs were essentially slaves required to work the land, they did not choose to do so at hours that suited them, which is a key "feature" of the gig economy. They also were required to work mines, logging, or whatever service the lord of the manor wished. Let's say you worked for ride-shaes the same hours as a serf, something like sunrise to sunset. If you drove an Uber in my city fo…
Re: 'The Gig Economy' Is the New Term for Serfdom
#13Pretty much stopped reading when I got to “hedonism and greed” part. Plenty of other communist rants to read. Is this an article or editorial?
The people currently driving for Uber/Lyft will be in the same boat when automation comes. Driving a car requires a pulse and peripheral vision. It’s ripe for a race to the bottom.
Re: 'The Gig Economy' Is the New Term for Serfdom
#14I was mostly agreeing with the article until this part: "His medallion, once worth $1.1 million, had plummeted in value to $180,000. The dramatic drop in the value of the medallion, which he had hoped to lease for $3,000 a month or sell to finance his retirement, wiped out his economic security. He faced financial ruin and poverty. And he was not alone." The medalions are stupid and shouldn't exist. Relying on their…
To be honest, I actually feel bad for medallion owners, even if the medallion system is a bad one.
The gov't sets ups a system, tells you the rules and says "if you buy an expensive medallion, you can drive a cab and make a living". The value of the medallion is purely based on the gov't promise to maintain the system.
So you buy one (or many) and a few years later someone does a work around and the gov't says "oh well, I'm not going to try to enforce the medallion system any more."
That sucks.
Re: 'The Gig Economy' Is the New Term for Serfdom
#15I was mostly agreeing with the article until this part: "His medallion, once worth $1.1 million, had plummeted in value to $180,000. The dramatic drop in the value of the medallion, which he had hoped to lease for $3,000 a month or sell to finance his retirement, wiped out his economic security. He faced financial ruin and poverty. And he was not alone." The medalions are stupid and shouldn't exist. Relying on their…
If you have a single asset worth a million dollars and you hope renting it out for 3% of its a value per year, you should immediately sell it and buy a well diversified investment portfolio instead. You can still sell 3% of your portfolio every year.
Re: 'The Gig Economy' Is the New Term for Serfdom
#16I was mostly agreeing with the article until this part: "His medallion, once worth $1.1 million, had plummeted in value to $180,000. The dramatic drop in the value of the medallion, which he had hoped to lease for $3,000 a month or sell to finance his retirement, wiped out his economic security. He faced financial ruin and poverty. And he was not alone." The medalions are stupid and shouldn't exist. Relying on their…
What about those thousands of Enron employees who lost their life savings because they "gambled" on the fact that their retirement savings will be invested responsibly?
I don't think his idea was such a massive gamble when he paid that money for the medallion.
You can argue about the system as such. But I don't think his idea was unreasonable.
Re: 'The Gig Economy' Is the New Term for Serfdom
#17> Travis Kalanick, the former CEO of Uber and one of the founders, has a net worth of $4.8 billion. I agree that the working conditions of workers should improve but I never understand the comparison to the value of CEOs. Travis Kalanick isn't sleeping on $4.8 billion, it's in the economy.
That seems like a technicality. He's not searching his couch cushions for beer money.
Re: 'The Gig Economy' Is the New Term for Serfdom
#18No this is not specific to the "gig" economy. Too much concentration of ownership in any kind of business is serfdom for non owners.
The difference being that when you work in a sallaried position you can rely on a certain economic baseline.
You can expect a regular salary and defined benefits.
The gig economy very much uppends those facts massively and gig economy can be profitable because they externalise the real costs.
To summarize: I don't disagree that too miuch concentrated ownership is a bad thing, but disagree with your conclusion that it's not specific to the gig economy.
Re: 'The Gig Economy' Is the New Term for Serfdom
#19I was mostly agreeing with the article until this part: "His medallion, once worth $1.1 million, had plummeted in value to $180,000. The dramatic drop in the value of the medallion, which he had hoped to lease for $3,000 a month or sell to finance his retirement, wiped out his economic security. He faced financial ruin and poverty. And he was not alone." The medalions are stupid and shouldn't exist. Relying on their…
Yes, the medallions were stupid, although I think they shouldn't have allowed Uber to operate without medallions, or get rid of the system in general.
>Relying on their "value" for retirement is crazy. And like another commenter has said - if it was worth 1.1 million, why not sell it and retire
Because he took out a loan of 1.1 million to buy it. It's not that he bought it for next to nothing and it rose to that price, it was always a stable asset. Because regulation didn't allow non-medallion taxis in the city. Until Uber came and they just allowed it.
>like all gambles, this one had a possibility of failing - and it did.
We're not talking about the smartest people here. Something that had a stable (and slowly rising) value for 100 years didn't seem like a gamble until the lobbyists came in and convinced the lawmakers to allow unfair competition.
I think medallions are stupid, but as long as the system exist, everybody needs to adhere by it, otherwise it's just f*ing over the working poor.
Re: 'The Gig Economy' Is the New Term for Serfdom
#20> Travis Kalanick, the former CEO of Uber and one of the founders, has a net worth of $4.8 billion. I agree that the working conditions of workers should improve but I never understand the comparison to the value of CEOs. Travis Kalanick isn't sleeping on $4.8 billion, it's in the economy.
Is it though, or is it in stocks? And even if he cashed in on that 4.8 bln, what would he do with it? Surely not put it all as a bolus into the economy, no CEO does that, they'd place their funds into bonds or other stocks. He will likely still buy 1 pair of jeans, 2 pillows, and 1 ice cream like the rest of us. The true way to put that 4.8 billion into the economy is to give the consumers, the drivers and riders themselves, the best bottom line. Then each of them in turn can buy that one more product, far more spending than a CEO is likely to do.