IDK. I know this is almost a week after you posted this. So for all I know you probably feel different now than you did last week. But I was crawling around and saw this thread, and still figured maybe it would be worthwhile to say something. Thread sounds a lot like the Thought Cabinet in Disco Elysium, when Harry Du Bois thinks over communism.

“0.000% of Communism has been built. Evil child-murdering billionaires still rule the world with a shit-eating grin. All he has managed to do is make himself sad. He is starting to suspect Kras Mazov fucked him over personally with his socio-economic theory. It has, however, made him into a very, very smart boy with something like a university degree in Truth. Instead of building Communism, he now builds a precise model of this grotesque, duplicitous world.”

The existential, and frankly eldritch, horror of fighting against capitalism is a very real and understandable thing. You’re not alone, you are seen, and you are one of many who are building the precise model of this grotesque, duplicitous world for the sake of reverse-engineering and reconstruction. Just, not everyone who is doing so are doing so super publicly, or in spaces we necessarily inhabit. I could ramble on and on and on, in fact I had to cut what I typed here down to about half of what I wrote for the sake of not being uh, overwhelming.

Oh, well uh, thank you! Sometimes it’s hard not to feel like I’m typing like Strong Bad in one of those Spemail episodes of Homestar Runner. Do you know what model typewriter you got?! That sounds exciting!

I mentioned in another comment, it’s a 1960s Brother typewriter! :) So uh, pretty old I guess! I’m not really a super expert, mind, but it’s definitely a piece of hardware that’s much older than I am!

My husband says congrats on your vintage find! :) Have you been enjoying it?

As the other user said, yes, there is a whiteout ribbon. I’m pointing at the lever that lets you pick between the three selections here in this photo!

What I aim to do with the third reel, eventually, is to ink my own ribbon with a rainbow pattern. :3 That way we have Business Color, we have Oops I Kinda Screwed Up, and Whimsy

Edit: For those curious, this is a Brother Charger 11 from 1962. We (my partner and I) wanted an all-mechanical model specifically, and we got ours from someone on Ebay. :)

Only no backspace out of technicality. :) There is a backspace key, I just don’t have any whiteout to use with it. So uh, using that key just makes things mush together. You can see that on the page, actually! I make that exact mistake multiple times. x) Def its own skill ceiling though!

I think this analysis is pretty spot on, especially when considering what Capitalism itself means and how it evaluates things. A car is a form of “durable asset” much like a home is. And, in fact, I think this is the way Capitalism was intended to work from the get go when it asserts that the labor is being done by the tool rather than by the person operating the tool, and therefore by the “owner” of the tool. The Uber driver example works very well, and we can probably apply this to things like an AirBnB too! It’s not about the driver or the home owner doing the work, it’s about the car or the house doing the required work that their owner happens to be supplying for the job. There are a lot of “bring your own equipment/device” jobs like this that we can apply this to, in fact. Field technician jobs, long haul freight, even working at home can be considered under this exercise.

It’s overall a good display of how Capitalism kind of works around people rather than with people, and in my opinion it’s a good pathway to get people to understand what needs to fundamentally change. Capitalism working around people, instead of with, insinuates that the person doing the job is irrelevant. They are just a part of the machine that makes the machine do the work at that point, and if the value is being put on the device doing the job rather than the worker… then it explains the heavy emphasis on automation. Removing the pesky worker from the system so that the work can still be done is a logical thing for a Capitalist to pursue.

We can turn that upside-down, though!

A co-op is a good short-term tactic to use to work against this, and it can do good to assert “we don’t need these middle-step companies that take our money”. This is actually a super great start, and a good step to slowly acclimate people away from the reliance on things like Lyft or Uber.

But my mind drifts towards long-term, since our movement must focus on a long term in order for these tactics to amount to much.

In the long term, would it not be better for the State to supply the vehicle for a driver to drive? A bus comes to mind immediately. The State supplying the bus is responsible for the maintenance of this bus, for outlining what the route is, and for making sure that the route is safe and efficient for the worker operating it as much as it is meant to be for the passengers. The State is responsible for making sure the bus is accessible to wheelchairs, and for those who are hard of hearing or struggle to read the signs or can’t see at all. Of course, a bus is very different from a specialized cab or taxi! And in truth there will probably still be some use for that kind of specialized service… but why not make that service the State’s responsiblity too? If for some reason a bus isn’t suitable to a person’s needs, then ideally a State should be able to see to this need accordingly.

In a State such as this, Uber just… wouldn’t be a thing, would it? It wouldn’t need to be. The State already does this. And if The People, the Workers, are the ones that run this State, then it’s at its simplest… workers working for workers. Working with the State against capital, rather than working against the state. Which, if my memory is right, are exact words said in the linked video in the original post. :)

I know this was long, but I didn’t want to JUST be like “yeah that’s a good analysis!” I also wanted to tackle the question of how to end the exploitation. And it seems to me the answer to end gig worker exploitation is the same as anywhere else: seize the means by which a gig is carried out, and remove the private capital from the equation.

I can even apply all of this to concert performance and sports competition, but this response is long enough as it is and I have some uh, doubts that anyone is gonna read all of what I’ve typed out! x)

Unfortunately it’s to be expected, fascism tends to prey on the vulnerable and the isolated! It’s what the entirety of Pink Floyd’s “The Wall” is about, in fact. It’s understandable why some people would pick it up, they’re told it would ease their pain and get them on their feet again. That’s where it’s our job to help them see it, and to give the support necessary for the trap to stop working.

I like this perspective the most! A lot of people CAN think about these things more critically and in-depth, the main thing is in letting people feel like they’ve figured it out on their own. The good ol’ Socratic method of teaching! :) Applies to inspiring people to action just as much as it does learning a song or algebra!