What’s Going on in the Workforce
“They sent a single artificial flower to her funeral.” Grab a box of tissues before you read this Bloomberg piece about Alabama’s auto parts industry.
“Amazon is externally exposing the tools it uses to set its own prices in order to guarantee that the price listed on Amazon is as low as possible for the customer.” This is a pretty fascinating read, from a retail startup founder, about the way that Amazon is setting itself up for market dominance by basically making a platform out of every possible part of the company.
h/t to my coworker Brad Rothrock, for finding this new site, which is designed to shame companies that aren’t paying their freelancers (as well as educate freelancers about who not to work for).
A Norwegian company says it will have a self-driving electric container ship in use by 2020.
The Investor Responsibility Research Center Institute just issued a report outlining the threats from automation to retail workers’ jobs (which make up about 10% of the workforce).
Reputation, reputation, reputation
Did you realize the American Dream? If you did, how much of that was due to your own hard work, versus where you started in life? Take this quiz for a new perspective on it.
Organizing Theory
Count Love is tracking protests during the resistance to Trump…and they have an app that’s designed to let you check in to be counted.
From Partners
Great piece from Gender Avenger on how the Personal Democracy Forum became more diverse in their speaker slots. Rule #1—don’t accept all-male panels.
Sharing, Solidarity & Sustainability
“Shitty jobs for everyone won’t solve any social problems we now face.” Check out what this Rutgers History professor has to say, about why full employment won’t solve our problems.
These documentary filmmakers want to film a basic income experiment for 2 years, and then release the movie in time for the 2020 elections.
Geeking Out
Fun data visualization that shows what time people in some of the biggest sectors of the economy are at work, at home, or somewhere else.