Uber

The free-commerce side of the Internet has been mourning over the end of Uber (and Lyft) in California. Vox Day has offered an alternate take.

I do not use the word "Capitalism" here. As best I can track the term Karl Marx invented it as an insult. Later, social-Darwinists took it on as a troll. To the extent "Capitalism" bears meaning, it is evil - as a whole. If I break it down into constituent parts, some parts are good and some parts... aren't. The good parts include privately-owned capital and the shift of ethics to the human person. The bad parts include maturity transformation (="paper money", "fractional reserve banking"; cf. Moldbug), indefinitely-prolonged compound interest (cf. Hudson), and free trade across national borders. Perhaps "Capitalism" can be saved if restricted to the good parts.

Which is not to leave the Socialists off the hook. The truer term for Socialism is: Sovereign Slavery. And that brings us back to California, with its "exit tax". A long, yuuge wall is on its way up along the Sierras and Mojave. But anyway.

Vox Day differs from free-commerce idealists/-ologues in recognising that (1) men are not born equal and (2) that does not always make the men on-the-outs deplorable. Ayn Rand accepted inequality but despised the non-Alphas, as only a woman can. Vox Day recognises that different sorts of men are tools for the task. Not all men should be Alphas; there are tasks which Alphas suck at, like taking time to do a specific task. More people are natural Betas: they can break down Alpha commands and delegate the actual work to others. More still are "Deltas", who like to do the job. So let them do the job, and reward them for a job well done.

This leaves "Gammas" and Omegas, who could join the hierarchy - but subvert it (Gamma) or abandon it (Omega). These and only these are worthy of contempt. But inasumuch as they represent character-flaws those so afflicted may learn to overcome their programming.

The heart of a labour movement is in Delta Rights. (Tragically it has been Gammas who too-often lead them.) Alphas if they are successful find themselves insulated from Delta life down-pit in the mines; Betas adhere to the Alphas and flatter them in this. "If the Deltas don't like it they can leave", say they. Well maybe. But the mine worker trained only for mining will leave for - what exactly: another mine? Burger King? Yang's UBI? Social-Security disability is always popular. So's heroin.

Vox Day directs would-be pro-Uber commenters to the Abadilla dockets, first. Absolutely fair: the burden of proof is always on those who reject the court's opinion. Who knows - as with Roe v Wade the judge could be wrong. But first you must prove it. Until then the judges' opinion stands, in this case that Uber exploits low-prospect workers in contradiction to California law.

As for what the future holds: the law may one day change in California, but I'd not wait long for that. Californians may instead develop robots to do most of the ferrywork. Historically, when workers cannot be enslaved anymore, mechanisation has replaced them. In the meantime Uber may be replaced with a more worker-friendly business-model. Like the taxi, which we'd survived using for decades before Uber became a thing.

RAEPSHARE 9/3/21: Saurabh Sharma speaketh. These companies are not your buddies. Seems like a good plan overall, to register drivers with their points of call, Austin in his case.