Excerpt: /323/ Tasty Frictionless Convenience

On the app economy.

 

[Patreon Exclusive]

 

Delivery apps have taken the world by storm, and the pandemic only deepened our dependence on them. What is the price of convenience – and is there anything wrong with wanting ease? Capitalist keep propping up these money-losing enterprises – why? And can they survive the end of cheap money?

 

Is the app economy just a battering ram against labour rights? Are delivery apps out to kill off traditional restaurants? And should we defend the petite bourgeoisie and independent bars and pubs?

 

And does the dream of freedom sold by apps to workers, of being your own boss, work as a legitimating ideology?

 

Reading:

• Farewell to the servant economy, FT
• Radical Technologies: The Design of Everyday Life, Adam Greenfield, Verso
• Delivering Restaurants to Wall Street, Alex Park, Compact
• 5 Reasons Marxism Has Nothing To Offer Millennials, Austrian Economics Center

Links:

• /59/ Übermenschen of Capital Pt. 3 ft. Leigh Phillips & Michal Rozworski
• Excerpt: /311/ Reading Club: The Precariat
• Excerpt: /172/ Three Articles: Elite Production (on Uber)