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Economic Policy Institute: Author Steven Hill on why we must expand Social Security (video)
Economic Policy Institute, June 28, 2016
Presentation by Steven Hill about his recently published book Expand Social Security Now! How to Ensure Americans Get the Retirement They Deserve. Hill appeared at the Economic Policy Institute in Washington DC, along with Nancy Altman, co-director of Social Security Works and Maya Rockeymoore, president of the Center for Global Policy Solutions.…
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C-SPAN’s “Washington Journal”: Book Discussion on Steven Hill’s “Raw Deal”
By Steven Hill, C-SPAN’s “Washington Journal,” June 26, 2016
Here’s the link to go the C-SPAN broadcast.
Author Steven Hill talks about his book, Raw Deal: How the Uber Economy and Runaway Capitalism Are Screwing American Workers, about the evolution and negative effects he believes the “gig economy” is having on the U.S.…
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Die Zeit: European Union, reluctant superpower – get over it!
by Steven Hill, Die Zeit, June 23, 2016
(German language version, Du bist super – gewöhn dich dran!)
If you type the words “European Union” and “crisis” into the Google search engine, you instantly receive 115 million hits. When I did that back in 2009, before the eurozone crisis, “only” 58 million hits popped up.…
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The Future of Work in the Digital Economy: Promise and Peril
By Steven Hill, Deutsche Telekom AG, June 8, 2016
What will jobs of the future look like, in a world in which “sharing economy” companies like Uber, Upwork, and ClickWorker are becoming the model for a new kind of company?
On the positive side, these new ways of employment can open up some opportunity.…
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Tagesspiegel: Berlin should toughen actions against Airbnb
By Steven Hill, Tagesspiegel, June 2, 2016
(German language version, Berlin sollte härter gegen Airbnb vorgehen)
The cost of rental housing in Berlin has nearly doubled in the last 10 years, making it harder for many people to make ends meet. Many factors cause housing prices to rise, but one market pressure has come from the hotel service Airbnb.…
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Die Zeit: The future of work in a social democracy
by Steven Hill, Die Zeit, May 25, 2016
(German language version, “Vorwärts, Genossen”)
One of the puzzles of the post-global recession is the ongoing electoral weakness of many center-left political parties. One would think that with so many voters worried about their future, they would naturally gravitate toward parties viewed as more worker-friendly and growth-oriented (via government stimulus rather than austerity).…
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Lecture: “Innovation for Jobs” in the Digital Economy
Lecture by Steven Hill, Hasso Plattner Institut, May 12, 2016
Keynote by Steven Hill, i4j Summit, “Innovation for Jobs”
Hasso Plattner Institut, Potsdam, Germany, link here… -
American Prospect: How to Fix Social Security? Expand It
by Steven Hill, American Prospect, May 12, 2016
Proposals abound to overhaul the Social Security system via means-testing, raising the retirement age, or price adjustments. But the real solution to a fairer, more stable retirement system is Social Security expansion.
(Excerpt from the author’s new book, “Expand Social Security Now: How to Ensure Americans Get the Retirement They Deserve,” published by Beacon Press)
Increasing numbers of workers now find themselves on shaky ground, turned into freelancers, temps, contractors, and part timers.…
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Lecture: “The Future of Work: How the ‘Uber Economy’ and Runaway Capitalism Are Threatening Workers’ Livelihoods”
Berlin Prize lecture by Holtzbrinck fellow Steven Hill, American Academy in Berlin, May 10, 2016
“The Future of Work: How the ‘Uber Economy’ and Runaway Capitalism Are Threatening Workers’ Livelihoods”
American Academy in Berlin, May 10, 2016… -
Handelsblatt: Germany’s false envy of Silicon Valley “startups”
By Steven Hill, Handelsblatt, April 21, 2016
(German language PDF version, “Deutschlands falscher Neid aufs Silicon Valley,” online version here)
As I travel around Germany, from the giant messe of Hannover and Frankfurt to the digital incubators of Berlin, I hear a near-constant refrain: “Germany needs more startup companies, more innovation, more ‘disruption’ — where are the German Googles, Apple and Facebook?”…
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Salon: Good riddance, gig economy: Uber, Ayn Rand and the awesome collapse of Silicon Valley’s dream of destroying your job
By Steven Hill, Salon, March 27, 2016
The New York Times’ Farhad Manjoo recently wrote an oddly lamenting piece about how “the Uber model, it turns out, doesn’t translate.” Manjoo describes how so many of the “Uber-of-X” companies that have sprung up as part of the so-called sharing economy have become just another way to deliver more expensively priced conveniences to those with enough money to pay.…
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Sierra: IS THE SHARING ECONOMY TRULY GREEN?
By Steven Hill, Sierra, March 14, 2016
Sarah and Jorge both love Uber. They dig everything about it—how quickly it arrives, especially compared to San Francisco’s crummy taxi service, and the efficiency of the app, which allows them to track the driver’s arrival. The service gives them a sense of independence without owning a vehicle, and it’s hugely popular among their demographic of urban, progressive-leaning, pro-environmental hipsters.…
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Digital Masterminds: Steven Hill on the Sharing Economy
Lecture by Steven Hill, Telefonica Basecamp, March 2, 2016
Digital Masterminds: Steven Hill on the Sharing Economy
Telefónica Basecamp, Berlin, March 2, 2016… -
Handelsblatt: Curse and blessing: How Germany can play a leading role in the new high-tech era
By Steven Hill, Handelsblatt, February 26, 2016
(German language PDF version, “Fluch und Segen,” online version here (paywall)
Many Germans I have spoken to are puzzled by the US presidential election, and the controversial rhetoric used by some leading candidates. It is hard to believe that these candidates are running for the most powerful elected office on the planet.…
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Spotlight: A New Safety Net for the New Economy
By Steven Hill, Spotlight on Poverty and Opportunity, February 10, 2016
For decades following the New Deal, most workers had a single employer who provided their safety net. But now tens of millions of workers are working in a high-tech economy for multiple businesses, either as contractors, freelancers, temps, or regularly employed part-timers.…
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Observer: Why Driverless Cars Will Screech to a Halt
By Steven Hill, Observer, February 9, 2016
The liability and regulatory issues involved in letting a 3000 pound death machine steer itself with no human at the controls remain huge
Elon Musk’s Tesla recently became the latest big shot company to enter the self-driving car sweepstakes. Mr. Musk recently announced the hiring of software architecture veteran Jim Keller, who previously had played key roles at Apple and AMD, to lead its Autopilot Engineering team.…
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Tagesspiegel: Good Jobs — threatened by the Internet
By Steven Hill, Tagesspiegel, February 5, 2016
German version, Gute Jobs – Durch Das Internet Bedroht
What is the future of work, and the future of jobs? For the last several decades, the workers of Germany, the US and Europe have been the most productive and wealthiest in the world.…
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C-SPAN: Book discussion on Steven Hill’s Raw Deal
By Steven Hill, C-SPAN, January 2016
Steven Hill talks with New York Times columnist Eduardo Porter about his book Raw Deal: How the “Uber Economy” and Runaway Capitalism Are Screwing American Workers, in which he examines the shift in the U.S. workforce with the rise of companies such as Uber and Airbnb and the impact of automation, robots and artificial intelligence on the labor market.…
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Huffington Post: Bob Dylan’s “Maggie’s Farm” Redux in the Sharing Economy
By Steven Hill, World Post/Huffington Post, January 21, 2016
Fifty-one years ago, Bob Dylan’s song “Maggie’s Farm,” a brilliant satire that compared the job prospects of that generation’s youth to that of working on a dystopian plantation, was released on Dylan’s album “Bringing It All Back Home.” The owners, Maggie, her ma, pa and brother — a real close-knit unit, like a small “sharing economy” startup — were quite eager to put you to work, but they were a bit stingy on the compensation side for your menial, TaskRabbit-type work.…
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How the Sharing Economy Screws American Workers
By Steven Hill, Huffington Post/WorldPress, January 20, 2016
A new and alarming mash-up of Silicon Valley technology and Wall Street greed is thrusting upon us the latest economic fad: the so-called “sharing economy.” In reality, workers at companies like Uber and Airbnb have little choice but to hire themselves out for ever-smaller jobs and wages, with no safety net, while the companies profit.…
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Salon: Uber and Lyft’s big new lie: Their excuse for avoiding regulation is falling apart
By Steven Hill, Salon, January 16, 2016
Did Lyft just admit it’s a taxi company after all? Ridesharing companies pretend to be tech firms. They’re not.
Recently Lyft and General Motors made a grand announcement, with all the hoopla meant to convey that this announcement is a really big deal: ta-daaaa, a joint partnership in which Lyft will develop self-driving cars with GM.…
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Benefits for the Rest of Us: The growing ranks of contingent workers need a new deal.
By Steven Hill, Washington Monthly, January/February 2016
The safety net for American workers and their families, which in the post-World War II era has been a cornerstone of the middle class, is under assault. Though the economy is growing, for most Americans it feels more like a recession than a boom.…
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Observer: Car Wars: Uber Forces Democrats to Fight Over the Soul of the Party
By Steven Hill, Observer, December 15, 2015
A leading Democrat was telling fellow Democrats to reject union and collective bargaining rights for Uber drivers
It was another Battle in Seattle, and this time the good guys won. Like so many previous battles, the theater of conflict was over the conditions and terms of economic justice.…
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Steven Hill at Town Hall in Seattle – How the ‘Uber Economy’ and Runaway Capitalism Are Screwing American Workers
By Steven Hill, Town Hall, December 7, 2015
Video of Steven Hill’s talk at Town Hall in Seattle based on his book Raw Deal: How the ‘Uber Economy’ and Runaway Capitalism Are Screwing American Workers. The author provides a sharp critique of the direction of both the traditional economy and its increasingly close marriage with the troubling sharing/gig economy.…
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Seattle Times: The ‘shared economy’ is further hurting workers’ rights
By Steven Hill, Seattle Times, December 5, 2015
The U.S. workforce, which has been one of the most productive and wealthiest in the world, is undergoing an alarming transformation. A significant factor in the decline of the quality of jobs has been employers’ increasing reliance on “non-regular” employees — a growing army of contractors, freelancers, temps and part-timers.…