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One of the challenges for those doing ghost work is that there's no agreement about the social status or baggage that comes with it. Is it a dead-end trap, no different from the piecework of the first decades of the last century, or a hip gig that ggives someone the ultimate flexibility? People who've decided to pursue ghost work presumably did so after weighing the costs and benefits. They decided, at least for the immediate future, that ghost work was a better option. Their decisions hinged on both what they valued more than money and on taking stock of what "regular jobs" look like in their lives. Their job prospects reflect the growing and sobering reality of what is available to working-age adults around the globe.
i guess the answer is it can be both. but because the pay is usually so low, it's way less likely to be the latter
What seems straightforward to many Westerners is often a hurdle for workers in India, where people's homes often lack a formal address. This was the case for Joseph. Unable to offer a postal address that satisfied MTurk's requirements, he bought an account for an agency and used its address - a common work-around. Shortly after Joseph bought that account, it, too, got suspended, likely because the address didn't match his government-issued identification. The third time Joseph tried to get an account, he bought one on Facebook. As he put it, "I found a person on Facbeook who was from Thrissur [a city two hours away], but he does not work on it [MTurk] anymore. I work using his account and give him 20 percent of my salary."
wonder if this has been fixed (on amazon's side) yet or if they just dont give a shit
For instance, Anand, 24, is a student working on MTurk and living with his parents in Chennai. Anand uses his income from MTurk to pay for personal expenses. He told us that his parents don;'t understand what he is doing in front of the computer so much, but he hopes to prove them wrong by eventually getting a formal position with Amazon.com. [...]
:'(
[...] Doordash offers a same-day pay feature, called Fast Pay, that lets Dashers cash out earnings, much like Amazon Payments lets workers draw their pay into a direct deposit account. Fast Pay charges $1.99 to cash out. [...]
fuck u
FIX 9: UNIONS AND PLATFORM COOPERATIVES AS THE NEW BETTER BUSINESS BUREAU
We need a third-party registry that allows on-demand workers to build their work resumes and accrue reputations, independent of the platform. Workers should be able to take their record of accomplishments with them, no matter where they pick up their next gig. Unlike a typical resume, a registry, managed by workers' representatives, would allow workers to display validated feedback from previous employers and requesters, no matter the platform of origin. Platforms could be required to post this portable stack of letters of recommendation as part of the worker's platform-specific profile. These registries could operate as the on-demand economy's Better Business Bureau, authenticating workers' identities and reputations and saving companies the engineering costs curretnly poured into blocking the relatively few bad actors bombarding platforms with shoddy or fradulent work. In exchange for bringing greater scrutiny for workers' reputations, registries could be used to hold companies accountable to workers' demands. For example, companies could be required to register suspensions and removals of workers.
agreed
ability to contest suspensions would be part of this. US DoL involved too
[...] if the future is dependent on workers who cannot turn to theri employers of record to provide healthcare, society needs an alternative that reflects reality. Some make the case for unviersal healthcare, taking a charitable stance. The sick deserve our collective care. The cold bottom-line truth of on-demand economies is that companies need a healthy labor pool, and preventive, comprehensive care for all is the most cost-effective way to keep a pool of people healthy. And because being "between jobs" will not longer make sense, all citizens of adult working age should have access to paid afmily leave so that no one has to choose between caring for aloved ones or a newborn and maing a living.
interseting ... the business case for M4A
Proponents of UBI today, who put it forth as a salve for the wounds cut by automation, frame the conversation as "Those poor sops who are at the bottom of the skills laddder! Let's be charitable and give them a hand." This ignores how dependent the future of work will be on contract on-demand labor. Our response to the call for UBI is the economic case for companies and consumers to share in underwriting a retainer for anyone contributing to on-demand economies. Retainers, like those paid to lawyers and other professionals, acknowledge the collective need to have a healthy, available, continuously updating workforce to make on-demand economies sustainable. These new portable benefits would come from all adults of working age, government funds currently spent on adminstering public benefits, and corporate taxes collected and poured back into a commons pool to cover the social security benefits for retirement, retraining, and paid leave and health costs for each worker. This workforce will require - and deserves - a differenset of benefits and safety nets. THe labor of hardworking people around hte worl dhsould not be rendered invisible or opaque by the rise of AI. Other industries have already taught business the value of shoring up the more sustainble albor practices of thier supply chians.
i like this (uncommon) angle on UBI: post-work solutions are not necessary yet since there is no foreseeable shortage of work
I was thinking, no doubt, of our nights in bed, of the peculiar innocence and confidence, which will never come again, which had made those nights so delightful, so unrelated to past, present, or anything to come, so unrelated, finally, to my life since it was not necessary for me to take any but the most mechanical responsibility for them. And these nights were being acted out under a foreign sky, with no one towatch, no penalties attached—it was this last fact which was our undoing, for nothing is more unbearable, once one has it, than freedom. I suppose this was why I asked her to marry me: to give myself something to be moored to. Perhaps this was why, in Spain, she decided that she wanted to marry me. But people can't, unhappily, invent their mooring posts, their lovers and their friends, anymore than they can invent their parents. life gives these and also takes them away and the great difficulty is to say Yes to life.
[...] And I realized that my heart was beating in an awful way and that Joey was trembling against me and the light in the room was very bright and hot. I started to move and to make some kind of joke but Joey mumbled something and I put my head down to hear. Joey raised his head as I lowered mine and we kissed, as it were, by accident. Then, for the first time in my life, I was really aware of another person's body, of another person's smell. We had our arms around each other. It was like holding in my hand some rare, exhausted, nearly doomed bird which I had miraculously happened to find. I was very frightened; I am sure he was frightened too, and we shut our eyes. To remember it so clearly, so painfully tonight tells me that I have never for an instant truly forgotten it. I feel in myself now a faint, a dreadful stirring of what so overwhelmingly stirred in me then, great thirsty heat, and trembling, and tenderness so painful I thought my heart would burst. But out of this astounding, intolerable pain came joy; we gave each other joy that night. It seemed, then, that a lifetime would not be long enough for me to act with Joey the act of love.
We were silent for a moment.
'Do you come in here often?' asked Giovanni suddenly.
'No,' I said, 'not very often.'
'But you will come,' he teased, with a wonderful, mocking light on his face, 'more often now?'
I stammered: 'Why?'
'Ah!' cried Giovanni. 'Don't you know when you have made a friend?'
I knew I must look foolish and that my question was foolish too: 'So soon?'
'Why no,' he said, reasonably, and looked at his watch, 'we can wait another hour if you like. We can become friends then. Or we can wait until closing time. We can become friends then. Or we can wait until tomorrow, only that means that you must come in here tomorrow and perhaps you have something else to do.' He put his watch away and leaned both elbows on the bar. 'Tell me,' he said, 'what is this thing about time? Why is it better to be late than early? People are always saying, we must wait, we must wait. What are they waiting for?'
'Well,' I said, feeling myself being led by Giovanni into deep and dangerous water, 'I guess people wait in order to make sure of what they feel.'
cute