*Call center workers pay for the privilege* /Propublica breaks open the massive, secretive abuser Arise, fronted by Disney, Airbnb, Intuit, Comcast, Carnival and more. / /Cory Doctorow// / https://pluralistic.net/2020/10/02/chickenized-by-arise/#arise If you only learn one technical term from labor economics, make it "chickenization" – Christopher Leonard's term for the way that the Big Three poultry processors have structured the chicken-farming industry (I learned it from Zephyr Teachout). https://pluralistic.net/2020/07/29/break-em-up/#break-em-up Here's chickenization: you're a chicken farmer. There is only one company that can buy your birds, thanks to market concentration. They tell you how to design and maintain your coop. They sell you the chicks. They tell you which feed to use, how much and when. They tell you when the lights go on and when they go off. They tell you how which vet to use, and which medicines they can use. They bind you to secrecy through nondisclosure and strip you of the right to sue through arbitration. They experiment on you. Your barn is filled with sensors that they monitor, and they tell you to vary feed, lighting, medicine and other variables to see if your birds get bigger. They are the only buyer in your region, so they know how each farmer's birds are thriving. But if the "independent" farmers ever tried to compare notes, they'd be violating their nondisclosure agreements and could be sued. Farmers who complain to regulators are barred from the market. Once your birds are grown, you bring them to the processor, who exploits their information asymmetry to figure out how to pay you JUST ENOUGH to go back to things, but not enough to get ahead. Since chickenization, poultry farmers have faced a wave of suicides. Once you know about chickenization, you see it everywhere: crop farmers are chickenized by seed companies, and Uber drivers are chickenized by their apps. [...] continua qui: https://pluralistic.net/2020/10/02/chickenized-by-arise/#arise