So this episode is about the capitalist immiseration being experienced by gig economy drivers in China rn. Sounds just as fucked as delivery drivers in the US tbh.
I was expecting more context from a left pod. Like maybe if China wasn't forced to compete with a ruthless global hegemon in the course of their development, for the survival of their project, their system might not be quite so authoritarian. Instead it's an episode of chinabad.
It's easy to be liberal when you're in a position of unassailable power. Not so easy when the US has the stated aim of killing your project by literally any means necessary.
Is this pod legit? Maybe I'm wrong about this, but don't the presenters write for vice and isn't it a vice pod? Is vice still owned by news corp?
Anyway, fwiw, the episode is worth listening to imo, more in the context of a great power media war and less as concern for the rights of chinese workers.
I think the key difference between China and many other places is that the Chinese government isn't afraid to put its foot down on behalf of workers.
Recently, a high ranking Beijing city official went undercover for a 12 hour long shift as a delivery driver and his findings were that drivers made too little for how hard they worked. The company is already promising and implementing a bunch of measures to improve.
http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/a/202104/29/WS608aa63fa31024ad0babb5d3.html
https://www.globaltimes.cn/page/202104/1222379.shtml
Like pollution before it, this sort of issue shows that the CPC is absolutely willing to put the interests of people above corporations and industry.
China is not a perfect country for the working class, but I firmly believe that conditions are going in an upwards trajectory, unlike anywhere in the capitalist world.
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Yeah being critical of China from a leftist perspective is generally fine unless it's the sort of "they're not the specific kind of leftism I prefer, so they're actually just capitalists" bullshit you sometimes find online.
In my view the gig economy is the capitalist answer to the question of what to do with a permanent underclass. Give them a tiny amount of money for very time consuming work so they can't think about rising up. Such a question should absolutely not be resolved (or even asked) in the same way in a country which strives for socialism.
Again, the difference is that Uber and Co can lobby Washington and state governments to prevent themselves from being regulated. Meituan and Co have gotten negative attention from Beijing for the social impact of their business model and now have no choice but to do better or get their shit pushed in.
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Interesting link. From from the same site there's https://www.globaltimes.cn/page/202104/1222175.shtml
Hopefully it's a more dangerous game that the capitalists in China play.
China Daily and Global Times are both government mouthpieces. They have about as much spine as The Washington Post. If they're being critical it's been approved.
No doubt, but given we're gonna be biased in favor of the post, it's good to hear the other perspective.