Top all-time · #2566
Ian Welsh
Personal blog · ianwelsh.netpoliticseconomics
Ian Welsh's personal blog at ianwelsh.net covers politics and economics. Since 2009, 29 different Hacker News readers have linked it 54 times, most often “The Market Fairy Will Not Solve the Problems of Uber and Lyft”. It is still writing: the last post was on 2026-11-02, and you can follow it by feed.
Most-linked posts?
- The Market Fairy Will Not Solve the Problems of Uber and Lyft3 people · 5 mentions · first linked 2016-04-15
What Hacker News says?
You're being an apologist for slavery? Alright then, where do we draw the line? Can I go buy a person? If not, can I invade Sudan?[1] > Ethical consumption is a dead end. Should we give up even thinking about it and just do whatever is most convenient? Will that solve all our problems? You know Amazon treats its employees like disposable shit. If you buy from them anyway you are putting your self-love above the love…
Comment linking /the-market-fairy-will-not-solve-the-problems-of-uber-and-lyft/
on “Facebook Network Breach Impacts Up to 50M Users”Submitted Do Adults Really Not Remember School Sucked? as a story · 174 points
HN discussion> I don't believe that deciding whether Uber behaved ethically or not is really a useful question (they clearly didn't) in a market where no one does. I look at alternatives. And when the alternative is a corrupt and massively inconvenient government backed cartel, then I will favor Uber. You're making the point well, that they're not necessarily worse than the system(s) they disrupted. - - - - > If you want to say…
Comment linking /the-market-fairy-will-not-solve-the-problems-of-uber-and-lyft/
on “The Uber leak exposes the global war on workers”Submitted Bitcoin Is Reactionary Money as a story · 31 points
HN discussionThis is kind of a bullshit argument because Uber is a venture-back corporation not a welfare agency. If there are people who truly "cannot contribute work of sufficient quality to be paid for full time work and benefits" then we give them a check. Are you really suggesting that uber/lyft driving is work therapy for mental invalids? https://www.ianwelsh.net/the-market-fairy-will-not-solve-the... > They [Uber and Lyft…
Comment linking /the-market-fairy-will-not-solve-the-problems-of-uber-and-lyft/
on “California appeals court rules Uber, Lyft must reclassify drivers as employees”Submitted What Not Buying Oil With Dollars Means as a story · 29 points
HN discussionI liked this piece which touches on many of these issues: http://www.ianwelsh.net/the-basic-psychological-structure-of...
Comment linking /the-basic-psychological-structure-of-our-society-does-not-work/
on “The Old Are Eating the Young”Submitted US Corn Crop Failure as a story · 17 points
HN discussionThe author is calling for deregulation just to build more wealth extraction machines for the already-wealthy. In re: the first part about building, check out the history of the Embarcadero freeway, the one that isn't there anymore. There are good reasons why things have slowed down, why we consider longer and deeper before we build. In re: "Too many seats at the table" you'll notice that it's the other fellow's seat…
Comment linking /the-market-fairy-will-not-solve-the-problems-of-uber-and-lyft/
on “The dictatorship of the articulate”Submitted Capitalists Only Respond to Threats as a story · 15 points
HN discussionI always try to bring this up in re: Uber/Lyft et. al.: https://www.ianwelsh.net/the-market-fairy-will-not-solve-the... ? > Here is the thing about Uber and Lyft (and much of the “sharing economy”). > They don’t pay the cost of their capital. > The wages they pay to their drivers are less than the depreciation of the cars and the expense of keeping the drivers fed, housed, and healthy. They pay less than minimum wag…
Comment linking /the-market-fairy-will-not-solve-the-problems-of-uber-and-lyft/
on “Can Uber ever make money?”Submitted The Late (Internet) Telecom Revolution Is Not Such a Big Deal as a story · 15 points
HN discussionI just mentioned this the other day in a thread about Uber: https://www.ianwelsh.net/the-market-fairy-will-not-solve-the... ? > Here is the thing about Uber and Lyft (and much of the “sharing economy”). > They don’t pay the cost of their capital. > The wages they pay to their drivers are less than the depreciation of the cars and the expense of keeping the drivers fed, housed, and healthy. They pay less than minimum…
Comment linking /the-market-fairy-will-not-solve-the...
on “The gig economy is quietly undermining a century of worker protections”Submitted Doctorow Has the Best Idea for How Canada Should Retaliate to Trump's Tariffs as a story · 14 points
HN discussionYou left out the part where they're siphoning capital from their drivers: > Here is the thing about Uber and Lyft (and much of the “sharing economy”). > They don’t pay the cost of their capital. > The wages they pay to their drivers are less than the depreciation of the cars and the expense of keeping the drivers fed, housed, and healthy. They pay less than minimum wage in most markets, and, in most markets, that is…
Comment linking /the-market-fairy-will-not-solve-the-problems-of-uber-and-lyft/
on “Uber and Lyft’s new road: Fewer drivers, thrifty riders and jittery investors”Submitted The Most Important Climate Change Graph You’ll Ever See as a story · 14 points
HN discussion> the purpose of the New York Times is to inform readers about the things that matter to them and to the world. Why isn't the purpose of the New York Times to mis-inform and trick its readers into blindly accepting horrific policies such as the US Invasion of Iraq in 2003? [1] A corporation's means and purpose are one in the same: profit. I love reading vague, romanticized mischaracterisations of corporations that e…
Comment linking /always-remember-the-nytimes-pushed-hard-for-war-in-iraq/
on “Whole Foods is struggling”Submitted America: A Failing State as a story · 7 points
HN discussionGood. To hell with them. One more time, with feeling: "The Market Fairy Will Not Solve the Problems of Uber and Lyft" > Here is the thing about Uber and Lyft (and much of the “sharing economy”). > They don’t pay the cost of their capital. > The wages they pay to their drivers are less than the depreciation of the cars and the expense of keeping the drivers fed, housed, and healthy. They pay less than minimum wage in…
Comment linking /the-market-fairy-will-not-solve-the-problems-of-uber-and-lyft/
on “California Labor Bill, Near Passage, Is Blow to Uber and Lyft”Submitted Beware the Friendly, Popular Types as a story · 6 points
HN discussionReminds me of "The Market Fairy Will Not Solve the Problems of Uber and Lyft": > Here is the thing about Uber and Lyft (and much of the “sharing economy”). > They don’t pay the cost of their capital. > The wages they pay to their drivers are less than the depreciation of the cars and the expense of keeping the drivers fed, housed, and healthy. They pay less than minimum wage in most markets, and, in most markets, th…
Comment linking /the-market-fairy-will-not-solve-the-problems-of-uber-and-lyft/
on “How the gig economy is making life harder for North American workers”Submitted The Age of Compliance as a story · 4 points
HN discussionIt's more of a watch what they do vs what they say thing: > since 1979, the Federal Reserve has raised interest rates whenever it looked like wages were going to rise faster than inflation. The Federal Reserve, in other words, has crushed wages. https://www.ianwelsh.net/trumps-continued-collision-with-the... While you don't see similar raising of interest rates when we have record multi year growth in stock prices T…
Comment linking /trumps-continued-collision-with-the-federal-reserve/
on “How Big Firms Keep Wages Low”Submitted The End of Cash; the End of Freedom as a story · 4 points
HN discussionYeah, this. "The Market Fairy Will Not Solve the Problems of Uber and Lyft" https://www.ianwelsh.net/the-market-fairy-will-not-solve-the... > Here is the thing about Uber and Lyft (and much of the “sharing economy”). > They don’t pay the cost of their capital. > The wages they pay to their drivers are less than the depreciation of the cars and the expense of keeping the drivers fed, housed, and healthy. They pay les…
Comment linking /the-market-fairy-will-not-solve-the-problems-of-uber-and-lyft/
on “Uber stops upfront ride pricing in response to California worker law”Submitted The fall of the USSR as a story · 4 points
HN discussionplease read this comment on a previous HN story: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4391500 or this short post: http://www.ianwelsh.net/assange-and-wikileaks-the-basics/ or this documentary: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yu4WCskniEc inform yourself
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on “Julian Assange urges US to end Wikileaks 'witch-hunt'”Submitted The US-UK Special Relationship Is Officially Dead as a story · 3 points
HN discussionI tend to bring this up on Uber/Lyft/etc threads, but it seems especially relevant here: "The Market Fairy Will Not Solve the Problems of Uber and Lyft" (2016) https://www.ianwelsh.net/the-market-fairy-will-not-solve-the... > Here is the thing about Uber and Lyft (and much of the “sharing economy”). > They don’t pay the cost of their capital. > The wages they pay to their drivers are less than the depreciation of th…
Comment linking /the-market-fairy-will-not-solve-the-problems-of-uber-and-lyft/
on “Uber and Lyft don't have a right to exist”Submitted Cold War 2.0 Incoming as a story · 3 points
HN discussion
