— Former NBA player Dennis Rodman's assessment of Vladimir Putin.
Abroad: Uber's haters in high places
THE GIST. It's been a mixed couple of weeks for Uber. On one hand, the company was valued last week at US $41 billion, making it the highest valued private company in Silicon Valley. On the other hand, governments all over the world are cracking down on the upstart taxi competitor.
GOOD FIRST. As mentioned, Uber is worth a ridiculous amount of money. They're looking to bank $10 billion in revenue by the end of the year, and have raised US $2.7 billion since 2010. By comparison, their nearest competitor, Lyft (who?), has raised about $330 million. It's not nothing, but it's not Uber. Basically, that Uber is so hot right now. So much so that they are threatening journalists who have yet to realise this fact. It's bit Nietzchean, really.
HATERS GON' HATE. Uber has a growing list of woes, despite the giant piles of cash. Where to begin? It just got banned in New Dehli because of an alleged rape committed by a driver. It's banned in Spain because of unfair competition. It's being sued by the cities of Los Angeles and San Francisco for misleading consumers, and it's about to starting beefing with Toronto over public safety laws.
DOWN UBER. Back home, the established players in the Australian taxi game are not happy about the new competition. Cabcharge, the rent-seeking company benefitting most from the lack of competition in the taxi market, is crying foul about Uber not being safe and not paying taxes. Given Cabcharge's political influence, you should probably expect life to get harder for Uber Australia.
Home: Working harder for the money
THE GIST. The Federal Government has been phasing in 'Work for the Dole' since July. They recently announced that the rules are going to be particularly strict in remote areas.
WFD, WTF. Work for the Dole is a scheme through which people who are aged 18-30, have been unemployed for 12 months, and live in designated areas have to work 15 hours a week at a 'host organisation' in order to keep their unemployment benefits. The work could be anything from landscaping, to retail, to "recording local history", whatever that means. (Selfies in the Centrelink queue?).
THEORY. The idea behind WFD is that it will provide 'eligible job seekers' with new skills and make them more likely to find a full-time job. This increase in employment will make the 'dole bludger' a highly elusive creature, so presumably outweighs the anticipated job losses from the A Current Affair editorial staff.
PRACTICE. So, does WFD work? Researchers at the University of Melbourne looked into this about ten years ago, and came up with a pretty definitive 'no'. Outcomes were actually worse for people in the program, likely because of A) the stigma associated with WFD (it doesn't look good on a CV), and B) it's a disincentive for people to look for other work. More recent data from the Department of Employment shows that less than 20% of participants went on to find full-time work within three months.
Small-talk
Year of the start-up. Question: what do Bitcoin and horse manure have in common? Answer: a company that lets you pay with the former for a service that sends the latter to your enemies in tupperware containers. Anonymously, of course.
Small victories. A Harvard Business School professor has sent several threatening emails to a Chinese restaraunt, after apparently being overcharged by $4. This display of Grade-A douchebaggery is probably best captured by the line, "I accept that refund without prejudice to my rights as provided by law". Slow clap.
Think of the children. The decay of civilisation in Afghanistan continues, as photos of a woman wearing a knee-length dress have shocked residents of Kabul. A woman baring her legs is so out of place in the city that people apparently think she is either mentally unwell or a prostitute.
You're at the end of another edition of The Gist. Thanks for reading.
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