Amazon Drivers Are Hanging Smartphones in Trees To Get More Work (bloomberg.com) 126
A strange phenomenon has emerged near Amazon.com delivery stations and Whole Foods stores in the Chicago suburbs: smartphones dangling from trees. Contract delivery drivers are putting them there to get a jump on rivals seeking orders, Bloomberg reported Tuesday. From a report: Someone places several devices in a tree located close to the station where deliveries originate. Drivers in on the plot then sync their own phones with the ones in the tree and wait nearby for an order pickup. The reason for the odd placement, according to experts and people with direct knowledge of Amazon's operations, is to take advantage of the handsets' proximity to the station, combined with software that constantly monitors Amazon's dispatch network, to get a split-second jump on competing drivers. That drivers resort to such extreme methods is emblematic of the ferocious competition for work in a pandemic-ravaged U.S. economy suffering from double-digit unemployment. Much the way milliseconds can mean millions to hedge funds using robotraders, a smartphone perched in a tree can be the key to getting a $15 delivery route before someone else. Drivers have been posting photos and videos on social-media chat rooms to try to figure out what technology is being used to receive orders faster than those lacking the advantage.
The economy is collapsing (Score:2, Flamebait)
Re:The economy is collapsing (Score:4, Interesting)
The economy wasn't doing great before this mess, and now it's just sped up its decline. I fully expect to have large numbers of homeless people in most communities around the country in the next few months.
By what measure was the economy poor before this mess?
Re:The economy is collapsing (Score:5, Insightful)
Worker income growth vs. inflation and INEQUALITY off the top of my head, I'm sure I could come up with more esoteric measures too, given some time.
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Worker income growth vs. inflation and INEQUALITY off the top of my head, I'm sure I could come up with more esoteric measures too, given some time.
All of that stuff off the top of your head except maybe inflation are not measures of the strength of the economy.
And the inflation rate has been very low for a long time:
https://www.statista.com/stati... [statista.com]
Re:The economy is collapsing (Score:5, Insightful)
I suppose you're technically correct, from the point of view of an amoral system that's completely indifferent to humanity's wellbeing, even though those are the lifeforms powering the same system.
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I suppose you're technically correct
Technical correctness is the best kind of correctness.
Prior to Covid, inflation was minimal, unemployment was at record lows, inequality was starting to reverse at least a little.
By almost any measure, the economy was doing well.
from the point of view of an amoral system that's completely indifferent to humanity's wellbeing
An economic system should be judged by its results, not by feelings and good intentions.
Re:The economy is collapsing (Score:4)
And if the results are moving some numbers around on computers in a way that looks healthy according to some arcane criteria while it destroys its host civilization?
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Thank you for your enlightening, reasoned, and on-topic contribution to this discussion!
Re:The economy is collapsing (Score:5, Insightful)
No, it was not. It was only because of how it's measured that inflation looked low. The reality is inflation is at least a full point higher than what is being shown.
An economic system should be judged by its results, not by feelings and good intentions.
In that case our current economic system fails on both counts. The only ones truly making out are the 1% and corporations, both of whom received massive tax cut whereas everyone else got literal crumbs. The same with the newest failed attempt at trickle down economics. Corporations wasted all that money on useless things like stock buybacks and corporate bonuses whereas the workers never received a cent.
As we've seen, corporations can't go more than a few days without begging for socialist handouts from the taxpayers, the very taxpayers who got the shaft from trickle down economics and who have been told they need to keep 3 - 6 months of emergency money on hand. Kinda hard to do when you haven't received a raise in years and rising inflation is tearing you a new one.
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everyone else got literal crumbs.
Do you understand what "literal" means?
Corporations wasted all that money on useless things like stock buybacks
Stock buybacks do not consume capital. The money goes to investors who then invest it elsewhere where it can presumably be more effectively used. So nothing is "wasted" and economic efficiency goes up.
Stock buybacks are a good thing and our economy would improve if there were more of them.
Re:The economy is collapsing (Score:5, Informative)
False.
Stock buybacks generally go to the wealthy, who tend to save more of their income than do the lower and middle class. If the corporations had instead pushed the money to workers, especially towards low-wage workers, more of that money would have been spent rather than saved and the economy would be better off.
Wage increases are better for the economy than stock buybacks are.
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Re:The economy is collapsing (Score:5, Interesting)
Tell that to Harvard [hbr.org].
it should be obvious stock buybacks are not good. They do nothing for the economy as the money used to buy back is wasted by not being put to productive use such as increasing worker salaries (who in turn would use that extra money to buy goods and services) or research and development.
Also, it should be mentioned many of the corporations who are begging for socialist taxpayer funded handouts used not only the tax cut money [businessinsider.com], but other money as well to buy back stock rather than increase worker salaries. Imagine if the corporate heads had been responsible and saved for a rainy day.
Velocity of money. It's a thing. You should read up on it some time. Stock buybacks reduce overall liquidity and dampen economic growth.
Re:The economy is collapsing (Score:4, Informative)
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The entire economy had been goosed by the trillion dollar tax cut that all went right into the debt.
Except tax revenues went up after the tax cut, as predicted by many conservatives. So, the debt increases were a result of spending increases, not because of the "hated" tax cut.
Not quite: Did the 2017 tax cuts and jobs act pay for itself [brookings.edu]
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You also said "So, the debt increases were a result of spending increases, not because of the "hated" tax cut."
This implies that none of the debt increases were due to the tax cuts, i.e. they paid for themselves. They didn't (which is what the article says).
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I responded to "the tax cuts went straight to the debt". If tax revenues went up and the debt increased, then it was because of spending increases, which I what I said.
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I responded to "the tax cuts went straight to the debt". If tax revenues went up and the debt increased, then it was because of spending increases, which I what I said.
And that is where you are wrong. The correct answer is: If tax revenues went up and the debt increased, then it was because of a combination of spending increases and the tax breaks. This is because, even though tax revenues went up, they didn't go up as much as they would have without the tax breaks. Come on man.
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Come on man, yourself!
You are trying to argue something that is outside the scope of the math. If revenue increased, but debt still increased then it is purely mathematically necessary that spending increased (and it increased more than revenue increased).
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IAs I said before, you are ignoring the fact that even though revenues went up after the tax cut, they didn't go up as much as they would have without the tax cut. That difference in revenue also contributed to the debt.
But that is pure speculation based on CBO projections and according to the CBO's own report The average error for CBO’s budget-year revenue projections is 1.2 percent, indicating the agency has tended to slightly overestimate revenues. For the agency’s sixth-year revenue projections, the average error is greater—5.6 percent. [cbo.gov] But, tax revenue did increase and debt still went up. Therefore, spending increased more than tax revenue.
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Inequality was starting to reverse at least a little.
Well Hallelujah for that. Acutally, the biggest effect was probably a few state and local minimum wage increase that, sure, raised incomes at the bottom - but did so over the dead bodies of Republicans who swore up and down that they would kill jobs.
But far be it from Trumpians to tout statistical quirks as evidence of their amazing performance. Like the single month where massive repatriation of cash corporations had stashed overseas - at a super-low rate, generated a big one-month drop in the deficit.
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An economic system should be judged by its results, not by feelings and good intentions.
The problem with judging an economy by its results is that the metrics are determined by priorities, meaning the feelings, of the people defining the metrics. Even within economic circles, the question of 'which metrics reflect the actual health?' is an old and heated debate rooted in which metrics represent good or bad results from the perspective of different interests.
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inequality was starting to reverse at least a little.
Gonna need a citation on that.
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An economic system should be judged by its results, not by feelings and good intentions.
One thing Covid has done a good job of showing are weaknesses in most standard measures of economic strength. A couple things they do a bad job of measuring are inequality and resiliency. A country can have a very high GDP and high poverty. You can have low unemployment with very few people even looking for work. You can have high efficiency but no ability to recover from unforeseen disruptions.
One reason the US has handled Covid poorly (which isn't Trumps fault) is we have an economy which is built upon ef
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An economic system should be judged by its results, not by feelings and good intentions.
Depends on what results are important. The prosperity of everyone, or just making money for the 0.1% at the expense of the 99.9%?
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By "traditional" measures, the economy was doing well. By the same measures, the economy in 1929 was great, then it wasn't. Often crash triggers aren't visible until after the crash, and the delicate service economy with a good GDP (which measures "services") is actually on the edge of collapse. One person loses their job, they don't buy services, so another is fired, and so on until y
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I supposed record low unemployment, especially amongst minorities, record stock market, and all other general factors of economic strength and growth aren't things you considered?
What's amoral about all that...the economy was going gangbusters before COVID here in the US.
Re:The economy is collapsing (Score:4, Insightful)
Right, yeah, the only measure of economic success these days is the stock market. Nobody gives two shits about how much money the working class is making. Oh, so you have to work two jobs in order to pay 50% of your income to live in a shared room with six other guys? Shoulda learned to code, ya failure!
The economy doesn't work for the majority of the working class. It barely works for the middle class. It does well for the top ten percent, and very, very, extraordinarily well for the top 1%.
GDP means nothing if all the money is going to very few people at the very top. But it looks good on paper, and it gives the successful an excuse not to care about, or even think about, the plight of the average joe.
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Right, yeah, the only measure of economic success these days is the stock market. Nobody gives two shits about how much money the working class is making.
Most stocks are owned by middle-class pension funds. So working people benefit from a rising market.
Asset price inflation is an unavoidable side effect of monetary easing. There is no way to hold down stock prices without pushing the economy into a deep recession.
The same economic policies that are holding up stock prices are also benefiting housing prices. 62% of Americans are homeowners, so this benefits many working people.
Re:The economy is collapsing (Score:5, Insightful)
The richest 1 per cent of Americans now account for more than half the value of equities owned by US households, according to Goldman Sachs. Since 1990, the wealthiest have bought a net $1.2tn in company stakes, while the rest of the population has sold more than $1tn. This contradicts your statement that "Most stocks are owned by middle-class pension funds."
Also, there is some nuance you are missing on home ownership. Average home equity has fallen since world war II. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/... [wikipedia.org]
Most Americans who "own" their home own less than half of it, while the bank owns the majority.
The American economy is rigged, and most of us are getting played by the wealthy.
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You are comparing apples to oranges.
Now the top 10%, by total wealth, own about around 84% of the all stocks, including those in pensions, retirement funds,etc based on numbers back in 2016. The reason for that was compounded during the obama years when all the bad talking about stocks, etc was being done.
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So your saying that I got a detail wrong, but my point still stands? Thanks. I'll try to phrase it better in the future. Most of the US doesn't own much in the way of stocks, pension related or otherwise. The rich are hogging the pie.
and you get an car crash on your 1099 job and beco (Score:2)
and you get an car crash on your 1099 job and do to having no income you need to become there butter at $0/hr and your welfare check will go them to cover there med bill
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Shoulda put that /s on there, I knew someone would take the statement seriously instead of seeing it as the satire it is.
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Shoulda learned to code, ya failure!
There are no k0d3rz in the top ten percent, let alone one percent. Why would you think k0ding is some panacea?
If you make over about $115k/year, then you are easily in the top 10% in the US. That is not really an outrageous salary for a middle of the road coder in a major metropolitan area.
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Shoulda learned to code, ya failure!
There are no k0d3rz in the top ten percent, let alone one percent. Why would you think k0ding is some panacea?
If you make over about $115k/year, then you are easily in the top 10% in the US. That is not really an outrageous salary for a middle of the road coder in a major metropolitan area.
In 2018, the 90th percentile for household income in the US was $184,292. [marketwatch.com] Hard to believe it's fallen to $115K in a couple of years, COVID-19 notwithstanding.
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There are no k0d3rz in the top ten percent, let alone one percent.
Not only are there no "k0d3rz" in the top ten percent, there is nobody who spells "coders" that way in there, either.
Re:The economy is collapsing (Score:4, Informative)
Actual economists disagree with you [brookings.edu], but I'm sure you'll be trotting out your Slashdot-annex U of Chicago doctorate to tell me otherwise real soon...
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Actual economists disagree with you [brookings.edu], but I'm sure you'll be trotting out your Slashdot-annex U of Chicago doctorate to tell me otherwise real soon...
That article is titled "Opportunity for growth: How reducing barriers to economic inclusion can benefit workers, firms, and local economies" and it doesn't disagree with me at all. A strong national economy may not benefit everyone equally. The article just says finding ways to be more inclusive can benefit the economy too.
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That's an interesting way to reframe the issue. You're merely foregoing benefits to the economy.
You're wrong [epi.org], of course, but keep claiming that income growth and inequality have nothing
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That's an interesting way to reframe the issue. You're merely foregoing benefits to the economy.
You're wrong [epi.org], of course, but keep claiming that income growth and inequality have nothing to do with the strength of the economy.
Actual economists still disagree with you. And you're not one, are you.
You are conflating the objective strength of an economy with social policy and social justice.
Real economists know the difference - and you're not one, are you.
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Objective strength of an economy and a strong middle class are directly related, not merely "conflated."
And I don't need to be one in order to cite support from economists. Meanwhile you keep pulling declarations out of your unqualified ass.
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Objective strength of an economy and a strong middle class are directly related, not merely "conflated."
And I don't need to be one in order to cite support from economists. Meanwhile you keep pulling declarations out of your unqualified ass.
Appealing to the few "authorities" that share your wokeness is irrelevant. The size and strength of the economy is measured by objective measures like the GDP and unemployment. What you are describing is not, and the people that propose them know it. How do you objectively measure a "strong middle class"? How do you even define one? It's not even possible at the national level, when a $100,000 income in NYC is barely livable while in much of the rest of the country it is a great income.
It's fine to be
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Says the commenter that cannot appeal to anyone.
And income distribution, average annual wages, wealth distribution, homeownership, education... all objective measures. Really. The census manages to pull it off.
Oh but it is. Find me an economist who says otherwise.
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Says the commenter that cannot appeal to anyone.
And income distribution, average annual wages, wealth distribution, homeownership, education... all objective measures. Really. The census manages to pull it off.
Oh but it is. Find me an economist who says otherwise.
Reading any portion of that last link would have given you a good start, but you couldn't be bothered, now could you?
A strawman that you cannot defeat because you've invested zero thought into adjusting income for cost of living [money.com]. How novel.
I'm not confused, you're in denial.
I read your article, it did't disagree with my points. You didn't actually provide any authorities, you just said they exist. I grant you they do, but it's just academic. Some economists feel that the traditional measures are inadequate because people can be poor even when the economy is booming. That's all fine and good but that feeling doesn't change the fact of how the economy is measured and reported. I don't have to provide you an authority, just read the government announcements and the reported l
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You didn't, and even if you did you were looking for "magzteel is dead wrong" rather than actually understanding the content. Sorry, those first two links were expressly about how these objective measures, were are undeniably trending poorly, are reflect a distortion that is hamstringing the economy.
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You didn't, and even if you did you were looking for "magzteel is dead wrong" rather than actually understanding the content. Sorry, those first two links were expressly about how these objective measures, were are undeniably trending poorly, are reflect a distortion that is hamstringing the economy.
"My arbitrary set of a handful of measures are perfect and don't you date say that any other objective measures are relevant to something as simple as an entire national economy."
Actually you do, because not even the government pretends that the indicators that you're citing constitute the entire picture while others are irrelevant. That's your own manufacture until proven otherwise.
You can't change reality no matter how many times you stamp your feet.
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The problem with your position is that it's self-invented, not reality. As demonstrated by your continuing failure to provide any support for your position from someone worth a damn.
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income inequality caused the Great Depression. Stock measures do not measure "the economy", nor does GDP. Measuring wealth and production doesn't matter if that's only 1% of the consumers. A consumer economy should be measured by the health of the lowest 20%, noth the highest 1%.
Re:The economy is collapsing (Score:5, Informative)
It was ok, not really great, unless you just looked at segments of the economy, or the official numbers. Official numbers are always cooked. For instance, unemployment statistics in the US only count those who seem to be actively looking for work. If you've been looking for work for 12 months and still don't have a job, you are likely not being counted as a statistic. If your unemployment checks ran out, you aren't being counted. The stock market could be booming and yet the economy could suck for very large segments of the economy. I see more homeless people than ever in the last few years - this may be due to high housing costs, but it's frustrating to hear the president crow about how awesome the economy is and how many jobs he's created while people are living in tents in my neighborhood.
Right now for example, lots of unemployment, lots of people unable to make the rent, it's very bad economically by most accounts and it has all the politicians nervous. And yet, my investments are up, the stock market looks good. Basing your notion of how strong an economy is just by looking at the stock market is very short sighted, even though that is often what is pointed to when trying to claim that an economy is good or bad. Probably because it's very easy to get a quick number by looking at a stock market but very difficult to get a broader and more comprehensive view.
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It was ok, not really great, unless you just looked at segments of the economy, or the official numbers. Official numbers are always cooked. For instance, unemployment statistics in the US only count those who seem to be actively looking for work. If you've been looking for work for 12 months and still don't have a job, you are likely not being counted as a statistic. If your unemployment checks ran out, you aren't being counted. The stock market could be booming and yet the economy could suck for very large segments of the economy. I see more homeless people than ever in the last few years - this may be due to high housing costs, but it's frustrating to hear the president crow about how awesome the economy is and how many jobs he's created while people are living in tents in my neighborhood.
Right now for example, lots of unemployment, lots of people unable to make the rent, it's very bad economically by most accounts and it has all the politicians nervous. And yet, my investments are up, the stock market looks good. Basing your notion of how strong an economy is just by looking at the stock market is very short sighted, even though that is often what is pointed to when trying to claim that an economy is good or bad. Probably because it's very easy to get a quick number by looking at a stock market but very difficult to get a broader and more comprehensive view.
The stock market is an indirect measure, not a direct one. The GDP and unemployment numbers show the economy has tanked.
Re:The economy is collapsing (Score:4, Funny)
The economy is fine, getting better every day. When the air-delivery drones put these guys out of work, there's still an infinite number of pizzas that need to be delivered, and furniture that needs to be moved. They could even learn to code, using a free phone found hanging from a tree.
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Re: The economy is collapsing (Score:2)
Arms race (Score:4, Insightful)
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The drivers are close. They are parked within 100 meters. But Amazon's algorithms give a benefit for every extra meter of closeness, which is silly.
If people are working this hard to get the gigs, then they are clearly overpaid. What Amazon should do is allow drivers to bid on the deliveries to drive the price down to the market-clearing level.
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Every extra meter? Considering that in the best conditions GPS is only accurate down to 5 meters that would be a neat trick for Amazon to pull off.
GPS spoofing (Score:2)
More importantly, there are apps that can spoof a phone's location to be whereever you want it to be. Not sure whether Amazon can detect that.
Well ... (Score:3)
...Cliff Clavin is not among them, that's for sure.
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...Cliff Clavin is not among them, that's for sure.
He also isn't hanging out at Cheers bar... we'll have to start a "Where's Cliff Clavin?" internet meme....
https://www.masslive.com/bosto... [masslive.com]
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"...Cliff Clavin is not among them, that's for sure.
He also isn't hanging out at Cheers bar."
Is he again at Gary's Olde Towne Tavern?
The Bastard!
Amateurish way to do it. (Score:4, Insightful)
This can be done with a set of Android VMs located in any convenient location running a fake GPS location app, or even faked GPS hardware. Hanging phones from trees is silly.
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This can be done with a set of Android VMs located in any convenient location running a fake GPS location app, or even faked GPS hardware. Hanging phones from trees is silly.
The picture in the article makes it look like cell phones grow on trees
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For those who are going to grab those cellphones for free then yes, they do actually grow on trees.
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Re:Amateurish way to do it. (Score:5, Insightful)
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Quite possibly, yes. There are people who do that for beermoney perk harvesting clusters, and they have no jobs.
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Well this is terrifying (Score:5, Insightful)
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Re:Well this is terrifying (Score:5, Insightful)
Yes, I think you can. There are lots of them, and they're representative of a large percentage of the US population. Most of the US is not "doing fine".
33% of Americans are working "gig" economy jobs (Score:3)
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More mysterious rsilvergun numbers (Score:2)
33%? According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the gig economy employs a little less than 5% of the US workforce (as of mid 2017). They also report that the number of gig economy workers has shrank since 2005.
https://www.bls.gov/news.relea... [bls.gov]
https://www.bls.gov/cps/electr... [bls.gov]
The last time rsilvergun made this claim [slashdot.org] about the gig economy, he said the numbers came from the BLS. Well, that was clearly a lie. You should be careful about blindly accepting his numbers. One really never knows where they
Not a good sign (Score:5, Insightful)
The widespread desperation implied by this story is deeply troubling. America constantly claims to be the richest, strongest, best, most democratic country in the world. But most of its population lives a paycheque or an illness away from bankruptcy.
It's no longer just cracks showing in this lie about American exceptionalism. The foundation is crumbling, and the whole world can see it.
Bingo. (Score:2)
Spot on. The US needs a bottom-up redo. Electoral system, taxes, healthcare, education, penal system, market regulation, media independence ... everywhere you look is a disaster zone. I wouldn't even know where to start if I were King of the US tomorrow. The only thing the US has going for it is that you can get a patch of land in the middle of nowhere in the mid-west, build your own community, put up some nato-wire fences and do your own thing. Other than that I hardly see any options.
I seriously hope you
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If I were King of the US, I know where I would start: Single transferable vote. It would go a long way to fixing the US's horribly dysfunctional political culture, by making it possible for voters to pick an option other than the R or D box without throwing their vote away.
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I mean they could hire their own drivers and have them waiting inside to get the package there that much quicker but...
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Actually, I've got a really, really good idea what it means. The idea that the United States is founded on liberty, equality before the law, unfettered capitalism, individual responsibility (and therefore is everything mentioned above) has been exposed as a lie. People like you have tried hard, and with some success, to keep that lie alive. But increasingly, people like you are the only ones who still believe it.
Please try to keep up. I know it's hard.
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The economy was rolling for everyone before the COVID deal hit. What I see is people who unfortunately have been told they can't and the governments here to help.
Not really. For some the economy was great, for many it was not. Bezos was getting wealthier while many Amazon people continue to struggle. They may have got a payraise but did they still have same benefits? Many of these people getting a measly $2 more an hour is seen as an incredible gift though does nothing to elevate their economic status. I think COVID has simply accelerated this as we see huge numbers of unemployment (and all those people saw their healthcare disappear as that is tied to employment).
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I've always been somewhat amazed at the segment of the population you point to...they leap to the defense of the very oligarchs who are grinding their faces into the dirt.
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the governments here to help.
yes, governments have helped several big companies which plenty of articles outlining much of bailout money went to those with connections.
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Refuting you in detail is simply beyond the amount of time I want to spend educating idiots, so I'll just pick one thing out of a number:
"What the heck do we know what it's like to live in the 1930s? But we've gotten better."
Better at what...allowing your police to murder black Americans on camera? I have to admit, that's a new wrinkle. Whether or not it's progress is another quesiton.
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It is a tiny bit of progress. These kind of murders have been going on in the shadows, unseen or unprovable, for a long time.
Capturing them on camera - that is some progress. The new focus on reining in the police is some progress.
I am actually very disappointed in our Congress. Congress jumped on the protests pretty quickly to consider doing something to rein in the police. What they actually did was next to nothing. What SHOULD have happened was first making it a severe (like years in prison severe)
Free cell phones grow on trees (Score:2)
More concerning thing (Score:5, Insightful)
It looks like these are not actually the drivers, but a vulture sitting on the tree, ... sorry I meant "intermediary"
"They believe an unidentified person or entity is acting as an intermediary between Amazon and the drivers and charging drivers to secure more routes, which is against Amazon’s policies.
The perpetrators likely dangle multiple phones in the trees to spread the work around to multiple Amazon Flex accounts and avoid detection by Amazon, said Chetan Sharma, a wireless industry consultant. If all the routes were fed through one device, it would be easy for Amazon to detect, he said."
That means instead of actual drivers competing for the jobs, someone far away gobbles them up, and distributed the opportunity any way they like, probably skimming a large portion from the top.
Welcome back to the 20th century practice of lending your taxi medallion.
The Grapes of Wrath (Score:5, Interesting)
I guess it has been nearly 100 years since events depicted in The Grapes of Wrath...so probably about time to see them repeated.
I recall Amazon aggressively recruiting delivery drivers in this area - kind of like those handbills the farm owners in California distributed throughout the Dust Bowl. Come to Amazon where the demand is strong and there is a glut of work! They required many of the new contractors to make significant capital investments to gear up and get onboard. You know, to make sure you had loans to pay on their new infrastructure and ensuring they couldn't easily walk away (sort of the modern equivalent of moving your family across the country on your last pennies). Now they have more drivers than work. It won't be long before there are 10 deliveries for 20 drivers and the cry starts: "If they'll do it for $5, I'll do it for $4. My family needs to eat." People will be living in their delivery vehicles and groups of police or neighborhood watch members will organize to sweep them from their nice, pretty streets. They won't want those people around because they know a hungry person, a person with no property, won't recognize their rights to their own property. If you live near a major city on the West Coast I'm sure you see things like this happening already. The Great Owners aren't known for paying attention to History.
Steinbeck:
“And the great owners, who must lose their land in an upheaval, the great owners with access to history, with eyes to read history and to know the great fact: when property accumulates in too few hands it is taken away. And that companion fact: when a majority of the people are hungry and cold they will take by force what they need. And the little screaming fact that sounds through all history: repression works only to strengthen and knit the repressed. The great owners ignored the three cries of history. The land fell into fewer hands, the number of the dispossessed increased, and every effort of the great owners was directed at repression. The money was spent for arms, for gas to protect the great holdings, and spies were sent to catch the murmuring of revolt so that it might be stamped out. The changing economy was ignored, plans for the change ignored; and only means to destroy revolt were considered, while the causes of revolt went on.
Smartphones growing on trees! (Score:3)
Next time I need to replace mine, I'll just drive to Whole Foods and pick one out of the trees. ;-)
Stop Ubering it up. Require it to be a day job. (Score:3)
High Speed Trading (Score:4, Insightful)
Kind of reminds me of the tactics employed by high speed traders. In order to gain an edge, you get the fastest equipment but at the same time you have to be closer to where the action take place.
Location, location, location.
The more things change, the more they stay the same...
Re: (Score:2)
Similar, but in this case it's fooling the navigation system. I'm guessing Amazon uses tower-based tracking as well as GPS, otherwise an android emulator with GPS spoofing would be a better solution.
Symptom of bad algorithms (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Stolen? (Score:2)
Don't they worry about someone swiping the cell phones?
Re: (Score:2)
Make some extra money by selling trees growing smartphones!