My alleged friends

It’s hard for me to have much sympathy for those who are suffering the travails of stock market performance since last Thursday, August 20. The Dow Jones Industrial Average is down, if I have added correctly, 1,682.29 points over those four trading days.[1] Nor have I much sympathy for my high tech friends whose start-ups may now face greater difficulty raising money.[2] Read more

  1. [1]Wall Street Journal to Major Indexes: Closing Snapshot list, August 20, 2015, http://online.wsj.com/mdc/page/marketsdata.html; Wall Street Journal to Major Indexes: Closing Snapshot list, August 21, 2015, http://online.wsj.com/mdc/page/marketsdata.html; Wall Street Journal to Major Indexes: Closing Snapshot list, August 24, 2015, http://online.wsj.com/mdc/page/marketsdata.html; Wall Street Journal to Major Indexes: Closing Snapshot list, August 25, 2015, http://online.wsj.com/mdc/page/marketsdata.html
  2. [2]Katie Benner, “Hot Tech Start-Ups May Face a Long and Bumpy Fall,” New York Times, August 24, 2015, http://www.nytimes.com/2015/08/25/technology/hot-tech-start-ups-may-have-higher-funding-hurdles.html

The infinitely replaceable worker

I guess I’m a little mystified by the recent New York Times exposés on white collar working conditions.[1] I remember when I was driving cab in San Francisco in the late 1990s that we would often line up outside financial district buildings late at night—I remember the one at 333 Bush—and pick up workers whose companies would pay their cab fare if they worked past a certain hour.

These same workers told me that they were expected back in at—I’m not remembering precisely—four or five in the morning. On such a schedule, I figured, they might get five hours of sleep. But I remember one such ride that took me to the Orinda BART station; that worker might get three hours of sleep. I couldn’t understand how people could live this way. Surely they would burn out. I came to think this was the intention, that companies would use these people up and spit them out.

Former Amazon employee Amy Michaels is quoted saying, “When you have so much turnover, the risk is that people are seen as fungible. You know that tomorrow you’re going to look around and some people are going to have left the company or been managed out.”[2] I’ve heard in the past that firing people is the hardest thing a manager does, but from what I’ve seen, employers relish infinitely replaceable workers.

At Amazon, this process is systemized with something called “stack ranking, or ‘rank and yank’,” a scheme that pitted employees in competition against each other with managers expected to weed out a certain proportion every year. Evidently, this contest proceeded at each level in the hierarchy clear up through at least middle levels of management. The system relies heavily on metrics but also encourages employees to fink on each other.[3]

I’m also disturbed that there seems to be more uproar about white collar workers than about those who toil in Amazon’s warehouses.[4] But ultimately, the point is the same: No matter how creatively or physically demanding the job, people are reduced to numbers—and those numbers need to be ever higher.

Another former Amazon employee, Jason Merkoski, is quoted saying “The joke in the office was that when it came to work/life balance, work came first, life came second, and trying to find the balance came last.”[5] I’m not laughing. People in such a setting do not work to live but live to work. They are important only for their productivity and the hours they work to produce turn their employment into what’s called a ‘total situation,’ that is, a situation that demands all of their energy and consciousness. Among other things, such situations may prevent people from finding other—less harsh—employment because there is no time to hunt for work or go on interviews.

As I said, this isn’t really news. And it isn’t just my taxi driving experience in San Francisco that informs me of this.[6] But it signals a development in our society in which people serve the economy and are otherwise entirely expendable and disposable.

Charles Reich pointed out that people in these situations would have too little energy left after work to consider their situations or to question the social order.[7] But what it also means is that we need no longer fear the rise of robots. For humans are being reduced to robots.

  1. [1]Jodi Kantor and David Streitfeld, “Inside Amazon: Wrestling Big Ideas in a Bruising Workplace,” New York Times, August 15, 2015, http://www.nytimes.com/2015/08/16/technology/inside-amazon-wrestling-big-ideas-in-a-bruising-workplace.html; Noam Scheiber, “Work Policies May Be Kinder, but Brutal Competition Isn’t,” New York Times, August 17, 2015, http://www.nytimes.com/2015/08/18/business/work-policies-may-be-kinder-but-brutal-competition-isnt.html
  2. [2]Amy Michaels, quoted in Jodi Kantor and David Streitfeld, “Inside Amazon: Wrestling Big Ideas in a Bruising Workplace,” New York Times, August 15, 2015, http://www.nytimes.com/2015/08/16/technology/inside-amazon-wrestling-big-ideas-in-a-bruising-workplace.html
  3. [3]Jodi Kantor and David Streitfeld, “Inside Amazon: Wrestling Big Ideas in a Bruising Workplace,” New York Times, August 15, 2015, http://www.nytimes.com/2015/08/16/technology/inside-amazon-wrestling-big-ideas-in-a-bruising-workplace.html
  4. [4]Daniel D’Addario, “Amazon is worse than Walmart,” Salon, July 30, 2013, http://www.salon.com/2013/07/30/how_amazon_is_worse_than_wal_mart/; Josh Eidelson, “Amazon Keeps Unions Out By Keeping Workers in Fear, Says Organizer,” Alternet, January 22, 2014, http://www.alternet.org/labor/amazon-keeps-unions-out-keeping-workers-fear-says-organizer; Nichole Gracely, “‘Being homeless is better than working for Amazon’,” Guardian, November 28, 2014, http://www.theguardian.com/money/2014/nov/28/being-homeless-is-better-than-working-for-amazon; Simon Head, “Worse than Wal-Mart: Amazon’s sick brutality and secret history of ruthlessly intimidating workers,” Salon, February 23, 2014, http://www.salon.com/2014/02/23/worse_than_wal_mart_amazons_sick_brutality_and_secret_history_of_ruthlessly_intimidating_workers/; Hamilton Nolan, “What Is Life Like For an Amazon Worker?” Gawker, July 29, 2013, http://gawker.com/what-is-life-like-for-an-amazon-worker-949664345; Alex Seitz-Wald, “Amazon is everything wrong with our new economy,” Salon, July 30, 2013, http://www.salon.com/2013/07/30/amazon_is_everything_wrong_with_our_new_economy/; Spencer Soper, “Inside Amazon’s Warehouse,” Morning Call, September 18, 2011, http://articles.mcall.com/2011-09-18/news/mc-allentown-amazon-complaints-20110917_1_warehouse-workers-heat-stress-brutal-heat
  5. [5]Jason Merkoski, quoted in Jodi Kantor and David Streitfeld, “Inside Amazon: Wrestling Big Ideas in a Bruising Workplace,” New York Times, August 15, 2015, http://www.nytimes.com/2015/08/16/technology/inside-amazon-wrestling-big-ideas-in-a-bruising-workplace.html
  6. [6]Noam Scheiber, “Work Policies May Be Kinder, but Brutal Competition Isn’t,” New York Times, August 17, 2015, http://www.nytimes.com/2015/08/18/business/work-policies-may-be-kinder-but-brutal-competition-isnt.html; Alana Semuels, “As employers push efficiency, the daily grind wears down workers,” Los Angeles Times, April 7, 2013, http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-harsh-work-20130407,5976597,1009581,full.story; Alana Semuels, “Tougher workplace makes home life worse too,” Los Angeles Times, April 7, 2013, http://www.latimes.com/business/money/la-tougher-workplace-makes-home-life-worse-too-20130407,0,4926425.story
  7. [7]Charles A. Reich, The Greening of America (New York: Crown, 1970).

Animal ‘welfare’ is harmful, explained

In a New York Times op-ed, Bob Fischer and James McWilliams visit a question that has, at least as long as I’ve been vegetarian ecofeminist, roiled vegans, the question of abolitionism versus welfarism. Abolitionism entails

the same inference that slavery abolitionists made in the 19th century. They claimed, as many animal activists do now, that it was pointless to call for the reform of an unjust institution. You don’t fix unjust institutions; you dismantle them. Entirely. Now.[1]

Read more

  1. [1]Bob Fischer and James McWilliams, “When Vegans Won’t Compromise,” New York Times, August 16, 2015, http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2015/08/16/when-vegans-wont-compromise/

Moral outrage and human rights for sex workers

I have to express a certain annoyance over the discourse surrounding Amnesty International’s recent recognition of human rights of sex workers. Despite the fact that this is Amnesty International we’re talking about, opponents of the decision insist on interpreting the new policy as enabling human trafficking.[1] Read more

  1. [1]Gaye Clark, “Amnesty International considers proclaiming prostitution a human right,” World, August 4, 2015, http://www.worldmag.com/2015/08/amnesty_international_considers_proclaiming_prostitution_a_human_right; Swanee Hunt, “Amnesty International is about to make sex trafficking easier, worldwide,” Global Post, August 4, 2015, http://www.globalpost.com/article/6625747/2015/08/03/commentary-amnesty-international-legalize-sex-trade; Monica Sarkar, “Amnesty International votes in support of decriminalizing sex trade,” CNN, August 11, 2015, http://www.cnn.com/2015/08/11/world/amnesty-international-sex-work/

The buzzards are circling over the Clinton campaign

Hillary Clinton is “still in a very, very strong position,” an unnamed strategist said. “I don’t think we’re in a free-fall situation here.”[1] Perhaps. But it is increasingly apparent that the buzzards are circling over her campaign. In response to an intensifying email scandal in which it is apparent she broke the law,[2] she said, “I won’t get down in the mud with them. I won’t pretend that this is anything other than what it is — the same old partisan games we’ve seen so many times before.” Not only are there “echoes of the old ‘vast right-wing conspiracy’ that she once said was out to get her and President Clinton,” but the campaign speaks of sticking to a plan rather than of responding to what’s actually happening on the ground.[3] Read more

  1. [1]Anne Gearan, Karen Tumulty, and Dan Balz, “Backers fear old weaknesses stalk Clinton campaign,” Washington Post, August 15, 2015, http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/new-campaign-same-old-problems-clinton-hurt-by-familiar-shortcomings/2015/08/15/ce80e2d8-42ad-11e5-8ab4-c73967a143d3_story.html
  2. [2]Jonathan Allen, “Bernie Sanders and “top secret” emails are catching up to Hillary Clinton,” Vox, August 12, 2015, http://www.vox.com/2015/8/12/9137705/clinton-email-top-secret; Trevor Timm, “Sorry, Hillary Clinton fans: her email errors are definitely newsworthy,” Guardian, August 1, 2015, http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2015/aug/01/hillary-clinton-email-errors-newsworthy; Jonathan Turley, “Clinton: ‘Pretty Clear’ No Emails Were Classified Despite Contrary Findings Of Inspector General,” July 26, 2015, http://jonathanturley.org/2015/07/26/clinton-pretty-clear-no-emails-were-classified-despite-contrary-findings-of-inspector-general/; Jonathan Turley, “State Department Classifies Dozens of Additional Clinton Emails,” August 3, 2015, http://jonathanturley.org/2015/08/03/state-department-classifies-dozens-of-additional-clinton-emails/
  3. [3]Anne Gearan, Karen Tumulty, and Dan Balz, “Backers fear old weaknesses stalk Clinton campaign,” Washington Post, August 15, 2015, http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/new-campaign-same-old-problems-clinton-hurt-by-familiar-shortcomings/2015/08/15/ce80e2d8-42ad-11e5-8ab4-c73967a143d3_story.html

Julian Assange may never be free

It sounds a lot more exciting than it is: “Swedish prosecutors have dropped three investigations into Julian Assange. The allotted five years had expired to bring sexual coercion charges against the WikiLeaks founder.” But it looks like Assange may well be spending a few more years in Ecuador’s London embassy as “prosecutors said they would continue with investigations into a further allegation of rape against Assange, also made in 2010. That charge will remain valid until 2020.”[1] Read more

  1. [1]Deutschewelle, “Sweden: Prosecutors drop inquiries into Julian Assange,” August 13, 2015, http://www.dw.com/en/sweden-prosecutors-drop-inquiries-into-julian-assange/a-18647085?maca=en-newsletter_en_from-the-heart-of-europe-2098-html-newsletter

Bringing down Donald Trump

“America is so much better than Donald Trump; our people so much smarter,” writes Bill Curry. “Remember that, and forget about Trump.”[1] Curry’s analysis is worthwhile reading, but his conclusion does not, in fact, follow from that analysis, and if people in the U.S. were indeed “so much better” and “so much smarter,” Trump wouldn’t be getting the traction he is. Read more

  1. [1]Bill Curry, “The destruction of Donald Trump: How the billionaire with a rage problem became the frontrunner — and then fell apart,” Salon, August 10, 2015, http://www.salon.com/2015/08/10/the_destruction_of_donald_trump_how_the_billionaire_with_a_rage_problem_became_the_frontrunner_and_then_fell_apart/

#BlackLivesMatter and the wrong target

I should be clear that I remain skeptical of Bernie Sanders as a presidential candidate because he is attempting to reform a system which I believe must be overturned entirely. As I have said before, the idealistic nonsense about a so-called ‘representative democracy’ is James Madison’s cover, made perfectly clear in Federalist no. 10, for protecting the minority rights not of any subaltern group but rather the property rights of wealthy white males.[1] Objections to the Citizens United decision are, therefore, nonsense. The system, corrupted by greed and run for big money interests, is working exactly and precisely as intended. Read more

  1. [1]James Madison, “Federalist No. 10,” in The Federalist Papers, ed. Garry Wills (1982; repr., New York: Bantam, 2003).

Sanity about Donald Trump

The first thing to understand about the campaign for the 2016 Republican presidential nomination is that all of these candidates are truly despicable people. Yes, every last one of them.

Some of this stems from the very nature of politics in the modern United States. As Will Rogers apparently put it, “once a man wants to hold a Public Office, he is absolutely no good for honest work,”[1] and with the possible exception of Bernie Sanders—who can hardly expect to win a popularity contest in the U.S. by identifying himself as a socialist—this applies to the Democratic candidates as well. Read more

  1. [1]Will Rogers, “Will Rogers says…” Will Rogers Memorial Museums, 2015, http://www.willrogers.com/quotes.html

Awful people notwithstanding

I finished writing an initial draft of my dissertation a few days ago. There’s still much to be done and many of the factors influencing the path between where I am now and actually having the Ph.D. in hand are not within my control. But now is when I look around and say to myself, softly, this is actually happening. Read more