New York University
Arun Sundararajan is Professor of Information, Operations and Management Sciences at New York University, where his research studies how digital technologies transform business and society. He is the author of The Sharing Economy; The End of Employment and the Rise of Crowd-based Capitalism.
The gig economy grows up We are fast becoming a nation of freelancers, temps and on-call hired help. In 2015 nearly 16% of workers had freelance jobs, a 10% jump from a decade ago. In fact, all of the net employment growth between 2005 and 2015 came from what's now referred to as the sharing or gig economy. Nearly a third of American workers have some kind of non-traditional gig, and by 2025 freelancers could make up half the workforce. This seismic shift away from 9-to-5 employment offers freedom and flexibility, but it comes with a steep price: few benefits, low wages, and little protection for the older workers who are increasingly drawn to the hustle. As the gig economy grows, will labor policy and protections keep up? We talk about the winners and losers in a world where more people are their own boss.
Uber, "Big Taxi" and the Sharing Economy As commercial ridesharing becomes more popular, it's eating into the business of traditional cab companies. Licensed cabbies are being replaced by part-time, unlicensed drivers using their own cars to make extra money. Hundreds of taxi drivers protested last week at Los Angeles City Hall against Uber , Lyft and Sidecar , what they all “bandit cabs” that use apps to find passengers and don't have special licenses or insurance coverage. Yesterday, London cab drivers brought gridlock to the center of that city. Is mobile technology spawning a mobile black market or is ridesharing the wave of the future?
Terrorism and tweets, hate speech and murder Just days before an election, Britain is coping with a rash of deadly terrorism, and Prime Minister Theresa May is on the defensive. And again today, President Trump has tweeted criticism of the Mayor of London. Later, a double murder in Portland, Oregon has revealed the ugly past of a supposedly “progressive” city. One immediate question: is “hate speech” protected by the First Amendment?
What happens when America retreats from the world? Is President Trump taking his "America First" agenda to extremes, withdrawing the country from the international stage on trade and climate change, distancing America from its traditional allies across the Atlantic and even threatening to physically isolate the country through the building of a wall along its southern border? León Krauze guest hosts.