<story><title>&apos;The Gig Economy&apos; Is the New Term for Serfdom</title><url>https://www.truthdig.com/articles/the-gig-economy-is-the-new-term-for-serfdom/</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>huffmsa</author><text>Yes, it&amp;#x27;s purely based on artificial scarcity. Which historical never lasts.&lt;p&gt;PanAm went bust because they banked on price fixed airline tickets.&lt;p&gt;USPS benefited from national mail logistics only being available to government level endeavors.&lt;p&gt;DeBeers is about to get crushed by artificial diamonds which are both cheaper and &amp;quot;better diamonds&amp;quot; than the massive stockpile they&amp;#x27;ve accumulated.&lt;p&gt;The rocket industry has long labored under the delusion that massive government contracts underwriting their $100m launch prices keep them safe. But their bubble is popping one $60m Falcon 9 launch at a time.&lt;p&gt;And finally, the government will support whatever brings in the most taxes and f̶r̶e̶e̶ ̶s̶p̶e̶c̶i̶a̶l̶-̶i̶n̶t̶e̶r̶e̶s̶t̶ lobbyist dinners.</text></item><item><author>refurb</author><text>To be honest, I actually feel bad for medallion owners, even if the medallion system is a bad one.&lt;p&gt;The gov&amp;#x27;t sets ups a system, tells you the rules and says &amp;quot;if you buy an expensive medallion, you can drive a cab and make a living&amp;quot;.  The value of the medallion is purely based on the gov&amp;#x27;t promise to maintain the system.&lt;p&gt;So you buy one (or many) and a few years later someone does a work around and the gov&amp;#x27;t says &amp;quot;oh well, I&amp;#x27;m not going to try to enforce the medallion system any more.&amp;quot;&lt;p&gt;That sucks.</text></item><item><author>gambiting</author><text>I was mostly agreeing with the article until this part:&lt;p&gt;&amp;quot;His medallion, once worth $1.1 million, had plummeted in value to $180,000. The dramatic drop in the value of the medallion, which he had hoped to lease for $3,000 a month or sell to finance his retirement, wiped out his economic security. He faced financial ruin and poverty. And he was not alone.&amp;quot;&lt;p&gt;The medalions are stupid and shouldn&amp;#x27;t exist. Relying on their &amp;quot;value&amp;quot; for retirement is crazy. And like another commenter has said - if it was worth 1.1 million, why not sell it and retire, perhaps doing a less stressful job than driving a taxi for 12 hours in turns with your wife? It sounds like he gambled - that he could keep working, keep the medallion, and retire while leasing the medallion for $3000&amp;#x2F;month(!!!!!!!!!!) - and like all gambles, this one had a possibility of failing - and it did.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>cptskippy</author><text>&amp;gt; USPS benefited from national mail logistics only being available to government level endeavors.&lt;p&gt;What Kool-Aid are you drinking?  The Post Office didn&amp;#x27;t benefit from anything, it was mandated because no such service yet existed.&lt;p&gt;Prior to the Office of the Postmaster General being established, postal service was disjointed and limited at best in the colonies.  In the 1600s you had 2 routes in the colonies, Boston to England and Boston to New York City. It was prohibitively expensive and limited largely to business and government communications.  In the 1700s the Imperial Postal Service was extended to the colonies with fixed rates and taxes included, and it was incredibly unreliable.&lt;p&gt;The Post Office was born out of frustration, one of the founding fathers ran a news paper and the Imperial Post couldn&amp;#x27;t even deliver papers reliably.  The Post Office was mandated by the founding fathers under the principle that everyone has the right to secure, efficient, reliable, and affordable mail service.&lt;p&gt;With the advent of the Interstate Highway System and many other technological advances over the prevailing 200 years, the Post Office was actually able to reduce costs and turn a profit.&lt;p&gt;During the civil rights movements of the 50s and 60s, the postal workers began protesting and striking because work conditions and compensation.  They eventually won the right to unionized.  In response to unionization the Postal Reorganization Act (PRA) of 1970 abolished the Post Office Department and turned the Post Office into an independent agency that was excluded from the US Budget.&lt;p&gt;One could argue that the PRA was the start of union busting tactics employed by the conservative government in power to bankrupt the post office.  It doesn&amp;#x27;t help that every conservative government since then has enacted some sort of constraint upon the USPS that isn&amp;#x27;t mandated on private services.  The most recent being the Postal Accountability and Enhancement Act of 2006 which required the USPS to switch from a Pay-As-You-Go to a Pre-Funded model for it&amp;#x27;s retirement plans.  That&amp;#x27;s akin to your mortgage company calling you up and saying you&amp;#x27;ll need to pay off 100% of your principal next year.</text></comment>
<story><title>&apos;The Gig Economy&apos; Is the New Term for Serfdom</title><url>https://www.truthdig.com/articles/the-gig-economy-is-the-new-term-for-serfdom/</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>huffmsa</author><text>Yes, it&amp;#x27;s purely based on artificial scarcity. Which historical never lasts.&lt;p&gt;PanAm went bust because they banked on price fixed airline tickets.&lt;p&gt;USPS benefited from national mail logistics only being available to government level endeavors.&lt;p&gt;DeBeers is about to get crushed by artificial diamonds which are both cheaper and &amp;quot;better diamonds&amp;quot; than the massive stockpile they&amp;#x27;ve accumulated.&lt;p&gt;The rocket industry has long labored under the delusion that massive government contracts underwriting their $100m launch prices keep them safe. But their bubble is popping one $60m Falcon 9 launch at a time.&lt;p&gt;And finally, the government will support whatever brings in the most taxes and f̶r̶e̶e̶ ̶s̶p̶e̶c̶i̶a̶l̶-̶i̶n̶t̶e̶r̶e̶s̶t̶ lobbyist dinners.</text></item><item><author>refurb</author><text>To be honest, I actually feel bad for medallion owners, even if the medallion system is a bad one.&lt;p&gt;The gov&amp;#x27;t sets ups a system, tells you the rules and says &amp;quot;if you buy an expensive medallion, you can drive a cab and make a living&amp;quot;.  The value of the medallion is purely based on the gov&amp;#x27;t promise to maintain the system.&lt;p&gt;So you buy one (or many) and a few years later someone does a work around and the gov&amp;#x27;t says &amp;quot;oh well, I&amp;#x27;m not going to try to enforce the medallion system any more.&amp;quot;&lt;p&gt;That sucks.</text></item><item><author>gambiting</author><text>I was mostly agreeing with the article until this part:&lt;p&gt;&amp;quot;His medallion, once worth $1.1 million, had plummeted in value to $180,000. The dramatic drop in the value of the medallion, which he had hoped to lease for $3,000 a month or sell to finance his retirement, wiped out his economic security. He faced financial ruin and poverty. And he was not alone.&amp;quot;&lt;p&gt;The medalions are stupid and shouldn&amp;#x27;t exist. Relying on their &amp;quot;value&amp;quot; for retirement is crazy. And like another commenter has said - if it was worth 1.1 million, why not sell it and retire, perhaps doing a less stressful job than driving a taxi for 12 hours in turns with your wife? It sounds like he gambled - that he could keep working, keep the medallion, and retire while leasing the medallion for $3000&amp;#x2F;month(!!!!!!!!!!) - and like all gambles, this one had a possibility of failing - and it did.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>rhino369</author><text>DeBeers already got crushed by Canadian mines. Their cartel fell apart 10+ years ago.</text></comment>