Conditions Of The American Working Class
February 24, 2020 9:14 AM   Subscribe

“...the fastest-growing occupations in San Francisco were taxi drivers, chauffeurs, couriers, messengers, and personal care aides.” The Silicon Valley Economy Is Here And It Sucks (New Republic) “ “Platforms like this, they exist to twist people who have no other recourse … It’s depressing, and makes it hard to feel like it’s worth getting up in the morning.” Horror Stories From Inside Amazon’s Mechanical Turk (Gizmodo) Youtube Moderators Forced To Sign Statement Acknowledging Their Job Can Give Them PTSD (The Verge) “ “Today, I was expected to clean up after 300 people in 10 minutes, alone,” he wrote. “This is not physically possible.” The Usher Uprising, are movie theaters the next wave of unionization? (Mel) Kickstarter and Amazon warehouse employees hold historic union elections, drives. How To Organize Your Workplace (Without Getting Caught) posted by The Whelk (9 comments total) 77 users marked this as a favorite
 
Good to have you back- now to dig into the links!
posted by Homo neanderthalensis at 10:18 AM on February 24, 2020 [9 favorites]


Well, I don't know if he was ever fully gone, but I will say it was a nice surprise to see that username pop up again.
posted by FJT at 10:19 AM on February 24, 2020 [7 favorites]


I'm not disagreeing with the sentiment (the gig economy is a fucking scam that's a natural progression of companies abusing "contract workers" to avoid paying for the costs of labor) but looking at the actual numbers, in the pull quote from that first article the top three "fastest growing" are

"taxi drivers and chauffeurs" (one category) +4k jobs YoY
"couriers and messengers" (also one category) +1150 jobs YoY
"software developers, applications" +14.5k jobs YoY

(Fourth is personal care aides at 14.9k but I think it's a stretch to call that silicon valley related. That's aging of America related.)

And then that article does the very common switching between San Francisco and the greater metro area which is multiple counties that have very different leaderships problem that gets into a peeve of mine. San Francisco has no control over, say, San Mateo county.
posted by aspo at 10:35 AM on February 24, 2020 [5 favorites]


Aspo’s $0.02 is worth actually quite a bit in gaining a fuller understanding of what’s going on here.
posted by armoir from antproof case at 12:01 PM on February 24, 2020


Welcome back, and thank you for the links!
posted by blue shadows at 12:38 PM on February 24, 2020


I worked in Silicon Valley for over 20 years. Add to this, being unable to obtain gainful employment when you reach the age of 45 or so...over 50 is even worse.

Health insurance is worse than ever.
Underemployment is the new norm.

Basically, people are now forced into being paid consultants, working for less than salaried employees (not more, like things used to be) without benefits (part of why being a consultant enabled higher hourly rates). It's basically a way to pay your employees less than they're worth and avoid payroll taxes, paying for benefits and having any of the normal expenses of having employees. Great for the companies, lousy for anyone who wants to earn a living.
posted by Chuffy at 12:48 PM on February 24, 2020 [7 favorites]


I think it’s spelled Whelkome back, and yeah, it’s good to see you around. I’ve missed these posts.
posted by Ghidorah at 1:43 PM on February 24, 2020 [6 favorites]


The link about Amazon warehouse employees organizing actually goes to a story about Target warehouse employees organizing. GOOD LUCK GUYS.
posted by egypturnash at 5:00 PM on February 24, 2020


Very glad to see you back, Whelk!!
posted by rue72 at 8:18 AM on February 25, 2020


« Older “338 it is and welcome to Walmart”   |   Harvey Weinstein, Convicted Rapist Newer »


This thread has been archived and is closed to new comments