Today's threads (a thread)
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Upcoming appearances (cont'd):
* #HayOnWye: HowTheLightGetsIn, May 22-25
https://howthelightgetsin.org/festivals/hay/big-ideas-212/
Recent appearances:
* Panopticon :3 (Trashfuture)
https://www.patreon.com/posts/panopticon-3-150395435* America's Enshittification is Canada's Opportunity (Do Not Pass Go)
https://www.donotpassgo.ca/p/americas-enshittification-is-canadas* Everything Wrong With the Internet and How to Fix It, with Tim Wu (Ezra Klein)
https://www.nytimes.com/2026/02/06/opinion/ezra-klein-podcast-doctorow-wu.html* How the Internet Got Worse (Masters in Business)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=auXlkuVhxMo* Enshittification (Jon Favreau/Offline):
https://crooked.com/podcast/the-enshittification-of-the-internet-with-cory-doctorow/13/
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Recent appearances:
* Panopticon :3 (Trashfuture)
https://www.patreon.com/posts/panopticon-3-150395435* America's Enshittification is Canada's Opportunity (Do Not Pass Go)
https://www.donotpassgo.ca/p/americas-enshittification-is-canadas* Everything Wrong With the Internet and How to Fix It, with Tim Wu (Ezra Klein)
https://www.nytimes.com/2026/02/06/opinion/ezra-klein-podcast-doctorow-wu.html* How the Internet Got Worse (Masters in Business)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=auXlkuVhxMo* Enshittification (Jon Favreau/Offline):
https://crooked.com/podcast/the-enshittification-of-the-internet-with-cory-doctorow/13/
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Today's threads (a thread)
Inside: What's a "gig work minimum wage"; and more!
Archived at: https://pluralistic.net/2026/02/17/no-piecework/
1/
I also like the idea of requiring young adults to do paid service jobs for a year--kind of like Peace Corps but expanded to include caregiver and the kind of social jobs that are now done by volunteers.
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Today's threads (a thread)
Inside: What's a "gig work minimum wage"; and more!
Archived at: https://pluralistic.net/2026/02/17/no-piecework/
1/
The people who kept Uber, & other gig economy startups alive for a decade, The Epstein Class ...
... they really want unpaid work i.e. slavery
Imagine a job like receptionist, where the person only actually gets paid when there's clients to deal with or a phone call to answer
The between-times, waiting for a call or for clients to arrive wouldn’t be paid
Required to be sitting in an office on a slow day, but unpaid
This rip-off is called "simplifying a business model" ...
1/
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The people who kept Uber, & other gig economy startups alive for a decade, The Epstein Class ...
... they really want unpaid work i.e. slavery
Imagine a job like receptionist, where the person only actually gets paid when there's clients to deal with or a phone call to answer
The between-times, waiting for a call or for clients to arrive wouldn’t be paid
Required to be sitting in an office on a slow day, but unpaid
This rip-off is called "simplifying a business model" ...
1/
2/
... but what it really is ... is slavery.
Koch Network is vehemently opposed to the concept of a minimum wage because they are white supremacists.
https://www.zinnedproject.org/if-we-knew-our-history/koch-brothers-want-students-learn-slavery/
The Koch Brothers Commissioned a Survey of Americans and Found Most Like a $15 Minimum Wage, Free College, and Universal Health Care
Where the Koch brothers see government tyranny, most Americans see common-sense solutions to basic problems, it turns out.
The Intercept (theintercept.com)
The Koch brothers tried to build a plutocracy in the name of freedom | Nathan Robinson
The Kochs have always believed that rich people had the right to rule over everyone else, democracy be damned
the Guardian (www.theguardian.com)
The Koch Brothers Are Waging War Against the Poor
Taking wage policy advice from Charles Koch is like taking advice on how to run a neighborhood watch program from George Zimmerman.
Truthout (truthout.org)
Anti-union Effort in Kentucky Is Ripped Straight from the Koch Playbook
Investigative reporting about corporate malfeasance and government wrongdoing, analysis of national and world affairs, and cultural criticism that matters.
In These Times (inthesetimes.com)
They are desperately trying to bring back every aspect of the economy of the Antebellum South of 1850, including disenfranchising women, POC, immigrants.
Koch Brothers Lobby for Broken Government, Burning Planet
Mayer’s book will long survive as a compendium of guilty men.
Progressive.org (progressive.org)
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2/
... but what it really is ... is slavery.
Koch Network is vehemently opposed to the concept of a minimum wage because they are white supremacists.
https://www.zinnedproject.org/if-we-knew-our-history/koch-brothers-want-students-learn-slavery/
The Koch Brothers Commissioned a Survey of Americans and Found Most Like a $15 Minimum Wage, Free College, and Universal Health Care
Where the Koch brothers see government tyranny, most Americans see common-sense solutions to basic problems, it turns out.
The Intercept (theintercept.com)
The Koch brothers tried to build a plutocracy in the name of freedom | Nathan Robinson
The Kochs have always believed that rich people had the right to rule over everyone else, democracy be damned
the Guardian (www.theguardian.com)
The Koch Brothers Are Waging War Against the Poor
Taking wage policy advice from Charles Koch is like taking advice on how to run a neighborhood watch program from George Zimmerman.
Truthout (truthout.org)
Anti-union Effort in Kentucky Is Ripped Straight from the Koch Playbook
Investigative reporting about corporate malfeasance and government wrongdoing, analysis of national and world affairs, and cultural criticism that matters.
In These Times (inthesetimes.com)
They are desperately trying to bring back every aspect of the economy of the Antebellum South of 1850, including disenfranchising women, POC, immigrants.
Koch Brothers Lobby for Broken Government, Burning Planet
Mayer’s book will long survive as a compendium of guilty men.
Progressive.org (progressive.org)
3/
"Kochonomics" is really white supremacy in drag.
White Supremacy and its Allies - New Politics
Perhaps the difficulty in capturing and defining the phenomenon of white supremacy lays in its ubiquity. Throughout American society (and more generally, across the Western world), ‘whiteness,’ symbolizes a status quo, a dominant set of norms and behaviors to which individuals are expected to adhere.
New Politics (newpol.org)
Uber, unions reach labor peace deal in exchange for dropping driver wage hike ordinance
Uber has agreed to support statewide legislation that would give drivers union rights but keep them classified as independent contractors, a union alliance said.
Chicago Tribune (www.chicagotribune.com)
The Disinformation Machine - Orion Magazine
The strategy behind the Koch network’s climate denial campaign
Orion Magazine (orionmagazine.org)
Minimum wage arguments and the Henry Ford model - MinnPost
A business model that locks wages at the lowest scale is not a business of the future.
MinnPost (www.minnpost.com)
Mothers Want Federally Funded Childcare. Why Are These Koch-Funded Women Opposing It?
The right-wing, anti-feminist, Koch-funded “Independent Women’s Forum” has been at the forefront of assaults on federally funded childcare.
Ms. Magazine (msmagazine.com)
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Today's threads (a thread)
Inside: What's a "gig work minimum wage"; and more!
Archived at: https://pluralistic.net/2026/02/17/no-piecework/
1/
Adore this definition of economics:
"... neoclassical economist (someone who has experienced a specific form of neurological injury that makes you incapable of perceiving or reasoning about power)"
It's like doing statistical analysis without examination of bias.
Republican administrations suppress wage growth
https://www.nytimes.com/2021/05/13/business/economy/middle-class-pay.htmlWomen's wage suppression
If women counted : worth and value in the global economy
Marilyn Waring; introduction by Gloria Steinem1/
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Adore this definition of economics:
"... neoclassical economist (someone who has experienced a specific form of neurological injury that makes you incapable of perceiving or reasoning about power)"
It's like doing statistical analysis without examination of bias.
Republican administrations suppress wage growth
https://www.nytimes.com/2021/05/13/business/economy/middle-class-pay.htmlWomen's wage suppression
If women counted : worth and value in the global economy
Marilyn Waring; introduction by Gloria Steinem1/
2/
How the American economy conspires to keep wages down | Gabriel Winant
The economy is growing but our paychecks are not. That’s because employers have, over decades, built a political apparatus to hold down pay
the Guardian (www.theguardian.com)
POC wage suppression
https://racism.org/articles/basic-needs/economic-issues-and-race/12678-economic-apartheid
Latino workers are often segregated into bad jobs, but a strong U.S. labor movement can boost job quality and U.S. economic growth
Latino workers are often sorted into low-quality jobs, but greater worker bargaining power can boost job quality for all U.S. workers.
Equitable Growth (equitablegrowth.org)
Why A Historic Wave Of Latino Prosperity Is Under Threat Now
A few months ago, things were looking up for Latinos: wages were rising and unemployment was at a record low. Now, Latinos are the worst hit among all races: a record high unemployment rate of 18.9%.
NPR (www.npr.org)
LGBTQ wage suppression
https://thehill.com/opinion/finance/557798-wage-suppression-not-stagnation-is-costing-workers-10-an-hour/
The Wage Gap Among LGBTQ+ Workers in the United States
In an HRC Foundation analysis of nearly 7,000 full-time LGBTQ+ workers, median earnings were about $900 weekly, about 90% of the $1,001 median weekly wage…
HRC (www.hrc.org)
Immigrants' wage suppression
https://www.epi.org/publication/immigrants-and-the-economy/
What Immigration Means For U.S. Employment and Wages | Brookings
Our nation’s immigration policy continues to be an issue of debate among policymakers, particularly the impact on the U.S. labor force. Michael Greenstone and Adam Looney highlight the economic evidence on what immigration means for U.S. jobs and the economy.
Brookings (www.brookings.edu)
The Immigration-Wage Myth
Does the American worker have good reason to fear immigration?
The Atlantic (www.theatlantic.com)
Understanding the Immigrant Pay Gap: Stephen Tino
Stephen Tino is a first-generation Canadian whose upbringing was rooted in the immigration experience. As a PhD candidate in the Department of Economics at the University of Toronto, he has been drawing on that experience to explore the pay gap between immigrants and non-immigrants in the country. "In various countries around the world, immigrants tend to earn less than non-immigrants,” Tino explained. “The pay gap in Canada is around 16%, and this is similar to the pay gap in other countries. A lot of previous research into the immigrant pay gap focuses on the skills of the workers, such as the language skills of immigrants when they come to a new country or their literacy, or how the different types of education they receive in their home countries might not translate to the same types of jobs in the host country.
(newsletter.economics.utoronto.ca)
How Tighter Curbs on Immigration Impact the U.S. Economy | Econofact
Immigration has accounted for almost half of U.S. labor force growth since 1995. Slower labor force growth would negatively impact employment and GDP growth.
Econofact | Key facts and incisive analysis to the national debate on economic and social policies. (econofact.org)
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Today's threads (a thread)
Inside: What's a "gig work minimum wage"; and more!
Archived at: https://pluralistic.net/2026/02/17/no-piecework/
1/
As I mentioned in my own blog on the subject of work: I recall a conversation here on Mastodon where one person said that everyone needs employment. Another responded that no, everyone needs food, clothing, shelter, and health care. We just happen to have a society where in order to get these things, you (normally) need to be employed in a job.
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What's a "gig work minimum wage": The important rate is what you're paid when you're waiting for a job.
Cory Doctorow (@pluralistic@mamot.fr)
Attached: 1 image "Minimum wage" is one of those odd concepts that *seems* to have an intuitive definition, but the harder you think about it, the more complicated it gets. For example, if you want to work, but can't find a job, then the minimum wage you'll get is zero: https://web.archive.org/web/20200625043843/https://www.latimes.com/entertainment-arts/books/story/2020-06-24/forget-ubi-says-an-economist-its-time-for-universal-basic-jobs -- If you'd like an essay-formatted version of this thread to read or share, here's a link to it on pluralistic.net, my surveillance-free, ad-free, tracker-free blog: https://pluralistic.net/2026/02/17/no-piecework/#no-justice 1/
Mamot - Le Mastodon de La Quadrature du Net (mamot.fr)
2/
Fun fact: This kind of stuff has a long history. For instance, in the Harz Mountains of Germany, miners were only paid for the time they were working within the tunnels, but not for the time they needed to get down to their designated tunnel.
This was a problem, since for the deepest mine - such as the Samson Pit in Sankt Andreasberg, which had a depth of 800 meters - it could take one hour to get down and two hours to get back to the surface.
Eventually, a technical solution was developed - the "Fahrkunst" or "Man Engine", which cut down the time to 20 minutes in each direction. You owe it to yourself to read up on it - it's one of the more unhinged modes of transportation out there.
