Hacker News Reader

Comment by bfrog | Hacker News Reader

The "gig" economy as some people are calling it appear to be closer that of subsidized serfdom by the wealthy. What else do you call it when you pay people to feed you, shop for you, and drive you aruond?

View on HN

> What else do you call it when you pay people to feed you, shop for you, and drive you aruond?

The regular economy? Are you suggesting people do these tasks for free, or that we should eliminate service roles from our society?

Not eliminate, but we should compensate service workers fairly to the point that they have basic health coverage and aren’t one paycheck away from being homeless.

They are compensated fairly based on market rates. If we artificially raise their pay above what the market will bear then no one will purchase their services and they'll have no job at all.

I think that's just called the service industry. I realize the jobs you mentioned aren't glamorous lines of work to a lot of people but I think your attitude is unnecessarily degrading to the workers. There are plenty of servers, drivers, etc. that take a great deal of pride in their work even if it's just a stepping stone or secondary income source for them.

Any evidence for this being “degrading”? Anecdotal evidence? It sounds farcicle, propagandistic, and at the very most an extreme rarity.

Although sure, plenty of people in any line of work will take pride in what they do, you are shaming someone for showing consideration for the plight of workers well understood to be the front line victims of market precarity. Sounds like an ignorant stance without presenting some evidence.

EDIT: HN would not let me reply to my replies so I clarified my question here.

> Even anecdotal evidence?

I take Uber a lot. I often ask the driver if they enjoy Ubering and I've yet to hear a negative response. In fact most love it. The main reason they site is being able to make their own hours and earn when they want.

I don't think most drivers are even aware that there's a group of upper/middle class people who think they're suffering and being degraded.

You can't depend on an impartial answer when the driver knows the person asking will be asked to rate and tip the driver after the trip. If I was the driver, I'd be all rainbows and sunshine no matter what, just to make the passenger feel good in the hopes that it translates into higher ratings and tips.

Their answers have been consistent since before Uber added tipping. Besides, I'm having a natural conversation with a normal human, at no point did I feel they were lying to me. It also makes sense that someone driving for uber voluntarily would actually appreciate the value proposition of the service (for a driver): make money when you want. Which is exactly what they say they like.

Evidence service workers take pride in their work? You need a source for that?

That's a very long string of words to ask "Can you present evidence that calling people who aren't serfs serfs is degrading?" I don't know what sort of evidence you're looking for here.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com