06 June 2013

In the digital economy, we'll soon all be working for free – and I refuse

"(...) Governments play up the idea that a digital future creates jobs rather than eats them up. Culturally, there is now a fantasy world of start-ups and blogs and YouTube TV where a very few people manage to make money but most work simply for 'experience'. 

In an interview with Scott Timberg for Salon, [Jaron] Lanier gives a potent example: Kodak used to have '140,000 really good middle-class employees. Instagram has 13 employees, period'. He describes a winner-takes-all world, with a tiny number of successful people and everyone else living on hope. 'There is not a middle-class hump. It's an all-or-nothing society'. 

We can shrug and say it's just another industrial revolution, a move from formal to informal work, the whole 'portfolio' number. But where is the social contract, then, if it 'doesn't tide you over when you're sick and it doesn't let you raise kids and it doesn't let you grow old?' (...)" (texto completo aqui)

2 comments:

alexandra g. said...

Pegando só no título, camerado: But We Are.

p.s. - what will we do next?

Anonymous said...

Para contraste, e sobretudo como resposta ao anglocêntrico "other european nations are even worse":

http://www.spiegel.de/international/europe/spiegel-interview-with-angela-merkel-on-euro-crisis-and-arms-exports-a-903401.html

"We are among the most developed regions of the world. We are so developed that we don't have to emphasize quantitative growth alone but can also focus on qualitative growth. (...) Those who make up just 7 percent of the world's population and generate 20 to 25 percent of global economic output, while at the same time providing just under half of the social benefits in the world, must explain how this can be paid for in the long term"

"As the German chancellor, I always want to best for Germany and for Europe because I am profoundly convinced that Europe's prosperity in 20 years depends on how we set the course today. If we do not view ourselves and our strengths and weaknesses in a global context, if we forget or ignore how hard countries in Asia or South America are working to become more competitive, Europe will fall behind globally. We have to have this discussion, even if it is controversial at times."

Na Alemanha há emprego. E indústria. E jornais. E a menor disparidade entre ricos e pobres à face da terra.

Outros países falidos (económica, politica e/ou moralmente) têm de resolver os seus problemas, como diz a etiqueta lá em cima, "there's probably no god", em vez de rezar e pedir favores faz mais sentido atacar os problemas reais de frente.
Cumps,
Buiça