The Servant Economy
<i>&quot;An unkind summary, then, of the past half decade of the consumer internet: Venture capitalists have subsidized the creation of platforms for low-paying work that deliver on-demand servant services to rich people, while subjecting all parties to increased surveillance.&quot;</i><p>The whole &quot;rich vs poor divide&quot; angle is nonsense. Like the article admits, all of these services were available before, but now they have the form of an app. The money goes to develop and advertise the whole show (creating jobs), but also to subsidize the labor. In effect, these services are more affordable than before. Uber is cheaper than a Taxi. Having your groceries delivered can be cheaper than doing it yourself, even if you earn small.<p>All that venture capital comes <i>from the rich</i> and goes into the pockets of <i>those who aren&#x27;t rich</i>. It&#x27;s dumb money, the same kind that made pets.com (a ludicrous business) go to a 100 million dollar market cap. As soon as that capital dries up, these shops will close down, or raise prices. They will never make their money back, because nobody will be able to maintain a monopoly on a service that almost anyone can perform. That&#x27;s also why the labor itself will stay cheap, no matter who the middleman is. It&#x27;s not like these jobs were highly lucrative before all these capitalists walked in.