There's a new class war brewing, that between employed and unemployed.

Sarah O’Connor, discussing the challenges of the Gig economy writes, “Offering employment benefits to drivers might well help to snap up the best workers and hang on to them. But if customers were not to shoulder the cost, investors would have to.”“Uber and Lyft’s valuations expose the gig economy to fresh scrutiny” January 2.

Sir, to that we must add that if the investors were neither willing to shoulder that cost, then the gig workers would have to do so, or risk losing their job opportunities.

That conundrum illustrates clearly the need for an unconditional universal basic income. Increasing minimum wages or offering other kind of benefits only raises the bar at which jobs can be created, while an UBI works like a step stool making it easier for anyone to reach up to whatever jobs are available.

Sarah O’Connor also mentions how a collective agreement was negotiated between a Danish gig economy company and a union. Great, but let us not forget that in the brewing class-war between employed and unemployed, the unions only represent the employed… and we do need decent and worthy unemployments too, before social order breaks down.

PS. There's another not yet sufficiently recognized neo-class-war too. That between those who have houses as investment assets and those who want houses as homes.

@PerKurowski

Give us a “Family and Friends' Facebook” and a “No Man’s Land Facebook”

Sir, John Thornhill “Several proposals for “fixing” Facebook are flying around; none looks wholly convincing. Maybe Financial Times readers have some smarter ideas.” “How to fix Facebook” August 6. Here follows a response to that challenge:

If I use Facebook strictly with my friends and families, fake news, or obscene behavior would not be a major issue, since I have quite a clear idea who in my circle would want to engage with that, and I have therefore my own powers to contain it.

The problem is when suddenly a third unknown, or by me uninvited party gets access to my circle, in order to peddle us a news or an opinion, in which he has an interest and quite likely we don’t.

So one alternative would be to have a family and friend Facebook, in which the only thing third parties could do was to advertise products and services, not post opinions, nor of course try to sell us political pamphlets. Would I be happy with such a Facebook? If the number of those ads, in consideration to my limited attention span, were limited to two or three per hour why wouldn’t I? 

Then there could be an open access Facebook to which any person, not a family and friends circle, can subscribe to and that would resemble the current Facebook. A sort of “Throw anything you want at us” Facebook.When on it, we would all be quite clear with that we will be fed fake news, and odiously polarizing opinions, and that in all essence we are on our own, running under fire, in no mans land. 

Would such split hurt Facebook’s profits? Not necessarily but, if so, it would also reduce the general risks for Facebook (and alike) to be subject to fines, since it would be much harder to hold it responsible for any misbehaviors occurring in the No-Mans Land’s Facebook. 

That said, to also diminish the amount of “odiously polarizing opinions”, something that behooves us all, Facebook should try developing algorithms that, using the whole web, tries to establish and then keep out, those who are looking mostly for some monetary enrichment. That could get about half of the polarization profiteers, the other half being of course much harder to identify, since they are mostly looking for political enrichment.

Talking with a knowledgeable friend he expressed curiosity about how much Facebook used linguistic experts when trying to identify fake-news or other bad behavior. He’s got a good point, though my first reaction was, in this world with constant changes in how we express ourselves, how on earth do we identify a qualified linguistic expert? And if Facebook is able to identify a qualified and diversified linguistic expert team, with perhaps Oxford professors, hip-hoppers and young street wise kids, how do you get them to work together and keep them united? 

And how do you in general avoid fake-news experts being gamed? Perhaps randomly picking fake news identifiers out of a large universe of volunteers, and changing these every couple of minutes, paying them well for their few moments of dedication could be an alternative. An Uber for Fake-News hunting? Sir, it’s a hard knock web!

PS: Sir, what do you think Facebook’s experts would say about the Basel Committee’s news: “That which is perceived risky, is more dangerous to our banks than that which is perceived safe”? True or Fake? 

@PerKurowski

$1m in capital for one New York City taxi medallion; only $16.000 for a bank to make a $1m loan to an AAA rated. Crazy!

Alistair Gray informs: “the value of the collateral, the medallions, has collapsed. New York City medallions were worth about $1m four years ago but some are now for sale for as little as $250,000” “Uber’s rise fuels financial crisis for taxi lenders” January 2.

$1m for “New York City licences, known as medallions, issued by the authorities to collect passengers”.

Sir, $1m for a New York City medallion, if that’s not a prime example of crony statism what is? Can there be any question of why Uber was needed? If you have to service a capital investment of this size, how high must the tariffs be and how much of these can be reasonably left to compensate the taxi drivers?

Compare this taxi driving capital requirement to that of banks according to Basel II. As payment for the benefit of regulators telling the world banks were regulated, and issuing various explicit or implicit deposit guarantees, banks needed to hold: 

1.6%, $16.000 in capital when lending $1.000.000 to an AAA rated client.

2.8%, $28.000 in capital when holding $1.000.000 in residential mortgages.

Max 8%, $80.000 in capital, for financing New York City medallions

PS. http://perkurowski.blogspot.com/2016/04/here-are-17-reasons-for-why-i-believe.html

@PerKurowski

Our best hope for a decent and affordable adult social care must be minimizing the intermediaries’ takes, whether these are private or public

Sir, Diane Coyle when discussing the possibilities and need for organizing for instance adult social care, and thereto taking advantage of new methods to connect demand and supply and as exemplified by Uber, expresses concern for “the treatment and status of workers in platform public services (although it is not as if these are high-status jobs at present)” “Algorithms can deliver public services, too” December 19.

What’s missing though in that good analysis, is not having contemplating additional tech advances. For example Uber wants to buy self driven cars, in order to get the complications of human drives out of their way, but without realizing that consumers might at one point take direct contact with those cars, in order to get Uber out of the way.

The same will happen for workers in public services, though of course the increased demand for adult social care should help to keep up the demand for many of them. But, even in this case who knows? If you think of yourself as an older person soiled with your own feces, what’s currently is delicate referred to as an “accident”, who would you feel most comfortable with cleaning you, a not too human 1st class robot or a human? 

Sir, the way our generation, and governments have gone on a debt binge, to anticipate current consumption, there will come a time for a reckoning. If we do not find ways to minimize the intermediaries’ take, we will not afford the basic services we need and want.

Of course intermediaries are workers too… and that is why even for them we need to create decent and worthy unemployments.

@PerKurowski

A Universal Basic Income would allow many at least some human time, so as not having to be full time androids.

Sir, Leslie Hook writes about Uber drivers having to work 24 hours a day, and feeling like androids, “FT Big Read. Uber: The view from the driving seat” October 5.

I have talked with many young bankers and heard they also, just like Uber drivers, feel a bit like androids; having just to automatically fill in many pre-ordained formulas, mostly just in order to reduce bank equity requirements, and never ever getting the chance of that so fulfilling opportunity of asking a client, “What do you intend to do with the money?” and thereafter deciding on whether recommend the credit or not to their superior.

But what can we do about it? Perhaps a Universal Basic Income would at least allow us to be half-time androids and half time humans.

What comes thru loud and clear from the article though is that we need lots of Uber and Lyft competing for our android services. Imagine being an android and having to serve a not too intelligent high-tech monopoly? That has to be as bad as it gets… sort of.

And of course we need new bank regulators.

@PerKurowski

The right of an unemployed to find a job, even if the job is not that satisfactory, does it not count for anything?

Sir, you agree with the “Taylor report” that in order to pay Uber drivers the statutory minimum wage entitlements, these should be paid with “adjusted piece-rates such that an employee working averagely hard earns at or above the minimum wage level”, “A judicious adjustment to the gig economy” July 12.

Really? Is that an incentive for an Uber driver to work more or less than average?

What will, what must happen, is that a lot of not really interested in earning a lot drivers will be asked by some out-of-workers-to-represent unionist, to sign up to Uber by those who want to earn more, so as to get those work averages down.

If any Uber driver works, and is not satisfied with his earnings, then he can always go and work someplace else for a minimum wage.

Sir, why do you agree with artificially raising the bar for people to reach up to the gig-economy? Is it not better to instead of raising minimum wages to start thinking about implementing a universal basic income that could function as a convenient step stool to help people reach up to the gig-economy?

When are you to wake up to the fact that as much as we need to think about the rights of the employed, we must think of the rights of the unemployed to at least work somehow?

Does it really have to be all or nothing? Don’t forget that besides jobs we will also need worthy and decent full or partial unemployments.

Sir look around, have you not noticed that many of those who would not use regular taxies, are now calling up Uber drivers? Does that not mean anything? You really want us to go back to how it was?

@PerKurowski

Church organists, lapdancers, Uber drivers. What follows? Some Prime Ministry gigs?

Sir, in this day with so much dourness, it really brightens up the day to read such a solid British humored phrase as Sarah O’Connor’s: “Does Britain really want to be a country that defines its chocolate gingerbread men more carefully than its 32m-strong workforce? “Blurred job definitions serve nobody’s interest” June 28

What fun article. Many thanks. As I see it Sarah, or Ms. O’Connor, I am not sure on how to refer to her, could be greatly qualified to console us FT’s readers after the announced retirement of that equally good-humored gem that is Lucy Kellaway.

Now when she writes: “Before Uber drivers were compared with lapdancers, those lapdancers were compared with church organists” might she be implying a strange progression into a sort of underworld? If that’s the case, it would be interesting to hear what she believes could come after Uber drivers. Perhaps some Prime Ministry gigs?

But down to the business of the blurriness of definitions: To me, if you work when you want you work, in such a way you want to work, and nobody but you impose some specific targets that need to be achieved, then you work for yourself. If you work when someone else wants it, according to some imposed unnatural standards, or you must meet some clearly specified work targets, then you are an employee.

By the way, does Uber require any minimum number of drives per month?

PS. But what we most might need, is decent and worthy unemployments

@PerKurowski

If Uber drivers are considered workers, are not driverless cars, or robots, workers too, to be taxed accordingly?

Sir, Sarah O’Connor, Jane Croft and Madhumita Murgia report on how “Uber drivers in the UK have won a crucial legal battle with a tribunal ruling they are “workers” entitled to the minimum wage and holiday pay.” “British court rules Uber drivers are ‘workers’ in setback for ‘gig economy’” October 29.

Yes, but if so, why are not those driverless cars that are expected to soon be supplanting all drivers not considered workers too?

Sir, as I have written to you before, if we do not tax what will represent lost work opportunities for humans, something’s going to have to give.

I have nothing against artificial intelligence or robots replacing human workers. That’s great, that will leave us humans much more time to enjoy life. But our non-human replacement workers need to be taxed too; and all those tax revenues re-distributed to all of us humans, by means of Universal Basic Income. That so that we humans will be able to afford enjoying all our additional spare time.

And it is all a case of simple justice. If a company does not employ me because of the payroll taxes I generate for him, should not my robotic substitute be charged with those same taxes?

And a Universal Basic Income would make it so much easier for all us humans to adapt to the gig-economy… we would not have to work 16 hours a day to make a living, perhaps 4 hors would do.

PS. I pray for my grandchildren not having to live surrounded by dumb artificial intelligence and lousy 2nd class robots  

@PerKurowski ©

If an algorithm can be the boss, why don’t we use our own algorithms to be our own bosses?

Sir, I refer to Sarah O’Connor’s enlightening and interesting “When the boss is an algorithm” September 10.

I would not mind at all getting rid of my car, if I was sure there was a service out there that could respond reasonably well to my needs.

But my needs are in essence somewhat different than Uber drivers’ needs. I want a taxi when I need it, and they offer a taxi when their drivers feel like it.

So, in my neighborhood, and I care little about neighborhoods hundred of miles away, why could we not have a transportation cooperative, run by algorithms decided upon between users and drivers?

In fact, even if I got rid of my own car, I can easily imagine myself providing driving services using my neighbor’s car, with his remunerated permission of course, or using some collective neighborhood cars.

@PerKurowski ©