The "Sharing Economy" vs Civilization

[edward ericson]

I know this is way off topic, fellas, but we all have other lives and I want to share a small part of mine. Last week I gave a presentation at TEDx Baltimore, which was fairly terrifying as I am not usually tasked with giving speeches in front of strangers. 

Anyway it came off OK, I think. And the topic has nagged at me for a year, so I would love to hear you-all’s thoughts and opinions on it, if you have any.

Basically, I think some of the folks at the leading edge of the new tech boom are steering us wrong, and that we stand a chance of losing a big part of the stability that once made this country (and the west generally) pretty great. Any thinking about what needs to happen next runs political, and I swear I’m not trying to start a fight, just a conversation. 

edsnova2015-02-07 20:41:34

[Rosebud and Bill]

Ed,I couldn’t get the link to work, I definitely want to read your talk.

 

Bill

Bad Bill

[edward ericson]

Thanks, Bill. I fixed the link. 

Seems like now the dang link utility always doubles the “http://” and that makes the link not work.

[Rosebud and Bill]

Ed,

 

We are on the same page.  I owned a graphics company for 30 some years.  To
the dismay of my competitors, we paid Union Scale Wages, even though we weren’t
Union, we paid medical, dental and life insurance for the employees 100%, we
paid 30 days personal time a year in lieu of vacation, sick time etc, it’s your
time off, you don’t have to explain why, we matched their IRA dollar for dollar,
we shut down Friday at noon and took the employees to lunch.  We had a lot of
very long tem employees, over 25 years for the most part.  Maybe, that’s why I
didn’t retire rich, but we all lived better for it.  Common sense is not very
common in today’s world.

 

Bill

Bad Bill

[Mike Schumacher]

Very well done Ed! Regretfully I will continue to ignore it. As long as we continue to elect politicians dedicated to the elimination of the middle class it just feels like another swing and a miss. My wife and I were at Carlisle this spring and are leaving for Phoenix Monday. We are almost always pleased to meet Americans individually. But somehow the media have turned you into a bunch of tea party supporters dedicated to making sure the rich get richer. With apologies for the generalizations.
juneybug2015-02-08 01:56:51

[billnparts]

Just watched your presentation and again enjoyed the humor you put into your rants.
Even in my job I see the deletion of the full time employee in favor of outside contractors. These contractors are the same people that were once gainfully employed at that same location. Now, as contractors they don’t have to punch the company time card or have anyone to really answer to. They now can come and go as they please, to a point. Work suffers, things back up and the remaining employees constantly bitch. Productivity suffers.

Bill Ascheman
Fiberfab Ford
Modified 5.0, 5sp., 4:11
Autocross & Hillclimb
"Drive Happy"

[john barry]

all this makes me happy I spent my adult (?) life working  the Caribbean and New England as a full time charter yacht(sailing) captain . 

[Author]

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