#silicon.valley

[breakingculture]

It is good to see a prominent candidate willing to at least partially take on these services - and the economic system that enables them. The problem is less that Uber is a hypercapitalist exploiter putting traditional cab companies out of business, or that Air bnb is driving up rental prices (though both of those are important issues) than that there are many many people who are so hard up they are willing to share their cars, houses, etc. in order to scrape by.

[whidmark]

Waiting for torrent.

[breakingculture]

Similar to what Robert Owen did in his factory - at the beginning of the 19th century. The difference is that he also made sure employees had some additional share in the proceeds, health care, education, and basic needs met. He was and is criticized for monitoring workers, but he also treated them humanely. Which is more than can be said of the trucking industry.

[breakingculture]

[breakingculture]

[breakingculture]

[breakingculture]

"Technology companies in particular, born in the lily-white incubators of Silicon Valley and Alley, are increasingly coming under fire for their questionable relationships to minority communities. Most recently, the makers of smartphone app Sketch Factor, which advises users which neighborhoods are “sketchy,” faced harsh criticism for stoking racial profiling by flagging predominantly minority neighborhoods."

[breakingculture]

The question this raises for me is how much of this is  caused by offline gender stereotypes - after all, how different is this from the everyday forms of catcalling and groping we are hearing more and more about? In other words, like piracy, the internet just makes it easier to track these forms of (ostensible) social deviance. Still, some very disturbing stats and anecdotes here - not least of which is the way law enforcement officials respond to these kinds of threats. This shouldn't be surprising, however, since recent studies have shown law enforcement systematically undercounts actual rapes: ignoring virtual rape threats seems par for the course.