You read the article, listened to the stories, and looked at the pictures, right? This is obviously the only source of income for many of those people. They're economically trapped and you're just happy to sell them e-bikes and pretend that it materially improved their conditions.
Oh, but it's greenwashing nonsense, so everyone turns off their critical reasoning skills, and pretends it's a secret virtue that they do so. This place has moved so far away from the hacker ethic that it blows my mind. What a pointless set of discussions and a false social pressure to never think beyond the guidelines set out in the article. Oh and you've got a side wide hall monitor to yell at you if you ever do.
It probably does improve their conditions - the main difference between developed and less developed places is better tech. And e-bikes are pretty much global - there's not much colonial about it.
So are many jobs. Many students do them, many people do them as an inbetween thing while looking for a better job, etc.
I get the desire to replace all no skill jobs with roombas and drones but some people need them and some even enjoy them.
A friend did over a year of grocery deliveries with a cargo bike recently and outside of the career growth issues he liked it a lot. Physical exercise, lots of free food and decent pay including tips.
Not everyone is a HN minmaxer following the meta to get to the highest posible salary in the shortest possible time. Some are happy with paid rent, food and a weekend visit to the club or w/e.
>They're economically trapped and you're just happy to sell them e-bikes and pretend that it materially improved their conditions.
What in the hell are you going on about with your criticisms? Here's an idea: Ask these people who buy the e-bikes to do their fairly menial but bill-paying jobs if they'd rather not have at least that option so that you can lecture them about their trapped economic state.
That things should be better and more versatile for more people in the world doesn't mean that shit should be thrown on every small benefit someone can extract from life because it's far from some ideal.
Oh, but it's greenwashing nonsense, so everyone turns off their critical reasoning skills, and pretends it's a secret virtue that they do so. This place has moved so far away from the hacker ethic that it blows my mind. What a pointless set of discussions and a false social pressure to never think beyond the guidelines set out in the article. Oh and you've got a side wide hall monitor to yell at you if you ever do.
Blech.