The difference between Ford and Kalanick is that the technological and social forces at work in their time are driving the value of human labor in different directions. I don't think that folks in Silicon Valley can do anything about that. My point is just that people are understandably salty about Silicon Valley's enthusiastic embrace of a future that doesn't seem that great for many people.
Re:The “Sharing Economy” Is the Problem
by prostoalex on Tuesday July 07, 2015 @06:59PM
(#9848686)
> The difference between Ford and Kalanick is that the technological and social forces at work in their time are driving the value of human labor in different directions.
Ford's process allowed him to reduce the headcount, and gain competitive advantage even with the added expense of specialized training and higher wages to retain the specialized labor. Therefore the total value of human labor should include the workers who would've been previously hired but were no longer needed under new process.
Which is not that much different from Silicon Valley's "do more with less" mentality.
I get your point though, and I don't think you're entirely wrong. I just don't think Ford was really any different from Kalanick. They're both capitalist looking to make themselves rich and powerful. They just lived in different times with different technological and social forces at work. Ford marshaled whatever rhetoric he could to combat those who were against him. Kalanick is doing the same.
Whatever problems with inequality the world faces aren't, in my opinion, due to a relatively small number of people in Silicon Valley but due to global forces trends that have been at work for decades.