Honestly I don't expect delivery services to survive, and I don't think it would be a tragedy if they ceased to exist.
If you want to create an echo chamber, this is how you do it.
>Most of the restaurant delivery services were bleeding hundreds of millions of dollars last year. They've had a resurgence because of the Covid-19 but that's a blip compared to a normal situation.
>If people think it doesn't cost that much money to operate, then all restaurants shouldn't have a problem having their own delivery service.
This is the comment I was responding to. Someone was discussing how much it costs to deliver and why people should be willing to pay more than 5% fees. And my comment that it's a luxury on top of a luxury is nothing more than an explanation of why people aren't willing to pay more.
>It's not very insightful to stick your nose in the air and loftily proclaim
Honestly I'm not sure why you took a comment calling food delivery a luxury so personally, I'm sorry it offended you.
Is it a "tragedy" if food delivery services cease to exist? Not to me personally, but it would be an inconvenience, and likely something much more serious to the people who work there and to those who drive for them. It's unlikely that those people appreciate being dismissed as unnecessary. In a capitalist society, the fact that they are a luxury doesn't have any bearing on whether they deserve to earn a living. I'm sure you indulge in more than a few luxuries yourself, just not this particular one, and that's OK.
(My comment was) nothing more than an explanation of why people aren't willing to pay more.
Except you went a bit further than that, didn't you?
Honestly I don't expect delivery services to survive, and I don't think it would be a tragedy if they ceased to exist.
You were probably downvoted for appearing insensitive. It happens. Take the 'L' and move on. I usually shoot for a long-term baseline of zero, myself, because I agree with your criticism that HN tends to sound like an echo chamber.
Don't get me wrong. I've used and use these services at times. I'm not morally opposed to them. I just think that saying that telling someone by not using them they're hurting immigrants is just a whole lot of backwards.
Backwards? What's backwards about wanting to inform people of all the consequences to their actions? Life is messy and complicated. Far too often people don't want to think about all the consequences to their actions so they can erase that complexity.
As an aside, not all of these companies are Silicon Valley-based anyway. SkipTheDishes, the one I use, is a Canadian company.
At some point we need to fix societal issues instead of worrying that not consuming goods or services is harmful.
There must be unprofitable business activities that would make better jobs programs. Student stipends, vocational training, teachers aides for natives learning foreign languages, subsidized English language lessons, almost anything would be a better investment for immigrant men than subsidization of unprofitable delivery services. Arguably just handing out money and skipping the unprofitable business activity would cause less damage and waste to the environment.