# Radio program: Throwing rocks at the Google bus



## Jack Malarkey (Jan 11, 2016)

I commend this radio program from ABC RN's Future Tense.

There is a very interesting discussion about Uber and the sharing economy more generally in it.

*Throwing rocks at the Google bus*

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show transcript
Sunday 13 August 2017 10:30AM
IMAGE: HAVE WE LOST SIGHT OF WHAT THE INTERNET TRULY HAS TO OFFER? (LINK TO LARGER IMAGE.h / Flickr CC BY-SA 2.0)

When Douglas Rushkoff surveys the digital world he sees lost potential and the growing dominance of old-style capitalism. He joins us to talk about his latest book _Throwing Rocks at the Google Bus -_ a wake-up call for a generation which, according to Rushkoff, has lost sight of what the Internet truly has to offer.

And David Glance, the Director of the Centre for Software Practice at the University of Western Australia, also believes we've lost our way and says social media was never as social as we might have imagined.

Original broadcast was on 20 March 2016.

(http://www.abc.net.au/radionational/programs/futuretense/throwing-rocks-at-the-google-bus/8781214)


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## ST DYMPHNA son (Aug 10, 2017)

every "Partner" should listen to it

still have the audio on,very scary and logical,thanks for getting it


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## fields (Jul 11, 2016)

I will listen to it next time I am driving.


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## Who is John Galt? (Sep 28, 2016)

.
Very, good. Thanks Jack. 
I prefer transcripts as I can dwell on words and contemplate (yeah, I know  ).

One of Douglas Rushkoff's paragraphs really jumped off the page:

"So if a platform like Uber, for example, if they simply gave 20% of their shares to the people who were driving Uber cars, it would change the entire balance of the equation. Then it goes from being a platform monopoly into something like a platform cooperative. So even if these drivers are essentially doing the research and development for a company that's going to have robotic cars that replace them, at least they will be co-owners in that new enterprise that they've worked so hard to create rather than just the roadkill that is left behind by automation."

".....in that new enterprise *that they've worked so hard to create rather than just the roadkill that is left behind* by....."

....co-owners or not, automation or not - it doesn't really matter. The idea that workers - be they employed or self employed is immaterial - are disposable, is contrary to everything that the western world has worked so hard to weave into the fabric of a fair, democratic and productive society.

Douglas Rushkoff again:
"And it throws everything out of whack in such a bizarre way that these companies end up adopting these scorched-Earth short-term tactics, *which is why here in America many Walmart branches are going out of business because they've bankrupted the communities on which they depended*. They put everybody else out of business, they don't pay a living wage, so they've gotten to the point where they don't have customers, they just have poor people living around them."

When you think about it, this is extraordinarily short term thinking.

Back in 1914, Henry Ford thought a little differently. Ford announced his $5-per-day program on January 5, 1914, raising the minimum daily pay from *$2.34* to $5 for qualifying male workers. Detroit was already a high-wage city, but competitors were forced to raise wages or lose their best workers.

I know, there are numerous qualifications for the above paragraph. However at the end of the day, an enterprise which treats its workers with respect and dignity will outlive any which is determined to obliterate them. Ford has been in production for 110 years. I wonder where Über, will be 110 years after its foundation?


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