"Rent A Human and other platforms like it will benefit from a technological shift that won’t change the current structure of labor and class relations — they will turbocharge them. Existing platforms such as Taskrabbit still require time, effort, and attention to delegate each task. Rent A Human, however, liberates the wealthy from the constraint of time and attention.

This relationship allows for a new dynamic — managerial compression — enabled by the digitized platform and AI. Your run-of-the-mill princeling living on the Upper West Side or Bel Air, or in whatever silk-stocking enclave he calls home, can wake up and instruct an AI agent to “complete this week’s to-do list.” However much Taskrabbit and its ilk have made easier the task of summoning vassals to attend to whatever errand and chore, they still require discrete requests and commands. That small expenditure of time has now been removed. Digital grandees can now instruct their AI agent to peel their grapes, wait in lines overnight for new sneaker drops, secure the last gluten-free scone from their favorite café, and test new oat milks for froth — all before leaving for Pilates — with little more than a spoken command."

https://jacobin.com/2026/02/artificial-intelligence-ai-labor-exploitation

#AI #AIAgents #RentAHuman #WageSlavery #LaborExploitation

Delivery firm DPD accused of ‘revenge’ sacking drivers who criticised pay cuts
https://www.theguardian.com/business/2025/nov/01/delivery-firm-dpd-accused-of-revenge-sacking-drivers-who-criticised-pay-cuts?CMP=share_btn_url

#uk #dpd #LaborExploitation

"Human Rights Watch interviewed 95 platform workers in the US between 2021 and 2023, in the states of Alabama, California, Florida, Illinois, Massachusetts, Michigan, North Carolina, Ohio, Texas, Wisconsin, Oregon, Washington, and New York. Human Rights Watch also conducted a survey in 2023 of 127 platform workers in Texas, which has some of the country’s weakest labor protections.

The nonprobability survey, the first of its kind in the state, is not generalizable to other workers, but provides systematically collected case-level data on subjects that are typically obscure. It found that the median wage among those surveyed was just US$5.12 per hour after deducting work-related expenses and nonwage benefits that form part of employee remuneration. This is nearly 30 percent below the federal minimum wage, which has not kept pace with productivity or inflation since 2009, and roughly 70 percent below the living wage required for single adults with no dependents to meet their rights in the state.

Ninety-five of 127 survey respondents said they struggled to afford housing in the last year, while the majority said they struggled to afford food, groceries, electricity, and water. Forty-four respondents said that they would not be able to cover a $400 emergency expense right now, while another 64 respondents said that they would take on credit card debt or borrow from family or friends to cover the expense."

https://www.hrw.org/report/2025/05/12/gig-trap/algorithmic-wage-and-labor-exploitation-platform-work-us

#USA #GigEconomy #AlgorithmticWageDiscrimination #LaborExploitation #DigitalPlatforms

"How Much Would An iPhone Cost If Apple Were Forced To Make It In America? In the $30,000 to $100,000 range… and no this is not a typo."

This old article is floating around, but it is missing another side of the equation: The exploitative mining of resources, such as the boycott of the iPhone over Cobalt mining in the DRC

https://www.forbes.com/sites/quora/2018/01/17/how-much-would-an-iphone-cost-if-apple-were-forced-to-make-it-in-america/

#economics #tariff #uspol #LaborExploitation

'With a rapidly shrinking population, South Korea is welcoming foreign workers, but many face exploitation and danger.'
https://www.aljazeera.com/program/101-east/2024/12/12/exploited-in-south-korea-migrant-workers-fight-for-their-rights

#SouthKorea #immigration #LaborExploitation #4B #4BMovent #migrants

An important reminder of why global justice under capitalism remains a dream for most people... #India #laborexploitation #sugar

"Bags of sugar that leave the Dalmia Bharat Sugar mill in the western Indian city of Kolhapur come with an industry guarantee: It was harvested humanely, in fields free of child labor, debt bondage and abuse.

None of that is true."

https://www.nytimes.com/2024/07/30/world/asia/sugar-human-rights-bonsucro-india-hysterectomies.html

video-flash-il surreale servizio del tg1 sul decesso di Satnam Singh, il bracciante... - Media e Tv

https://www.dagospia.com/rubrica-2/media_e_tv/italia-quando-muore-schiavo-colpa-sua-ndash-surreale-399117.htm

"IN ITALIA QUANDO MUORE UNO SCHIAVO È COLPA SUA – IL SURREALE SERVIZIO DEL TG1 SUL DECESSO DI SATNAM SINGH"

#sfruttamento #cadutidellavoro #LaborExploitation

È morto Satnam Singh, il lavoratore indiano che aveva perso un braccio sul #lavoro a #Latina

https://www.ilpost.it/2024/06/19/bracciante-indiano-morto-latina/

"Singh è morto all’ospedale San Camillo di Roma, dove era stato portato lunedì scorso in elicottero in seguito a un incidente […]. Mentre era al lavoro in un campo è stato schiacciato da un macchinario trainato da un trattore, che gli aveva tranciato il braccio destro e schiacciato entrambe le gambe."

#cadutidellavoro #sfruttamento #LaborExploitation