It used to work like this: you window shop, see something nice, the price tag is right there. The fake price is crossed, the overpriced discount is right below it written in pen, rushed. Entering the store you can inquire about the item and purchase it at the written price.
This exchange can go wrong in many ways:
- you don’t have reviews to compare, unless you did your homework
- you don’t know the production cost and the shop’s margin
- some shops will charge you a different price hoping you won’t check
- in beautiful Italy some shops won’t give you a receipt, a proof that they paid taxes, hoping you won’t ask them to produce one (it used to be illegal not to argue with the shop owner!)
The so-called internet revolution, e-commerce bust, was supposed to change that like so: - you have reviewers, except you don’t know if the seller is paying for them
- you’re still fuzzy on the production cost, but the seller shouldn’t have the same costs since they don’t have a physical shop and staff. Except the prices are not that different from the physical shop nowadays
- different sellers have ordered slightly different versions of the same trash from China, prices range from 10$ to 80$ for no apparent reason. The free-shipping option has the shipping cost included - sellers probably pay taxes while the e-commerce multimillionaires try to avoid them in any way possible
One big con of buying online was the time it took for the merchandise to reach your mailbox. In the early thousands I used to buy books online, I live in a small town and the local library does not have that many volumes. It would take about two weeks for a couple of books to arrive at my doorstep. Nowadays I can have same-day shipping and make sure the rider is not taking a leak on my watch.
These companies are so powerful that they bought poverty and sold them as a dream to aspire to. Making 20$/day riding a bike through traffic in a god-knows-how estimated time caught the imagination of some, and the needs of others.
Let’s be clear. I don’t think all riders are doing this to show off, to glamour in victimhood. This kind of attitude, assuming it exists, cannot last more than a week. If you’ve ever worked in a factory as a young student, alongside the working class, you know what I mean. It’s not fancy. You don’t organize strikes with your colleagues and discuss the paradoxes of late capitalism. Your hands are dirty and you have little to show for it at the end of the month. You smell and your sleep is shit. The noise and chaos is suffocating. When I talked of “imagination” and “needs” they were bourgois and lower-classes respectively.
Sometimes I argue with people about same-day shipping. It’s my thing. Do you really need that comic book you could have walked two blocks to get RIGHT-NOW? Some people say yes, their money makes the rules. Other people show a bit more empathy. Others argue about job opportunities and how this short dopaminic feedback loop employs and feed people. Bullshit. All of it. If I can get my ethnic culturally-appropriated tea in 3 days instead of 4 I click that box too.
How are riders employed? How are their rates calculated? As the title of a nice book suggests, we live in a world of Weapons of Maths Destruction. AI engines (fancy word for linear algebra) estimate output in terms of bias given by developers and business. Price tags are not out on display anymore. If you’re lucky you’re not being profiled, but let’s be frank, you already know you are.
I work for an insurance company, profiling is the oldest trick in the game for this business and it does make sense. If you’re a shitty driver, insuring you costs more. Driving properly is under your own control, if it’s not you probably shouldn’t. This makes sense, although you can argue à la Kropotkin that some people need to put work and responsibility above their own well-being.
The problem rises when insuring becomes a business to profit from. At this point cold hard numbers come in. If you’ve ever worked in this field you know what kind of crazy variables are factored in the price, if not, sorry, I cannot spill out trade secrets. Let’s say they can go from the size of your car (bigger car = more chances to hit something = more surface to repair) to which day of the week you have off work. We’re hungry for data and we’re good at justifying it. In some parts of Italy getting your car insured is between impossible to bank-breaking. People there try all kinds of scams to work around insurances tariffs, which as you can guess gets into a vicious cycle, upping the prices for anyone else in that area.
With more data and more refined models I can get that one honest and god-fearing citizen for a decent price. They would be foolish not to insure with me.
This can go wrong in many ways. Prejudices get into the system no matter how narrow you make your alpha.
Price tags are then personalized. This might not sound so bad to you. You have nothing to hide. You drive a regular car in a small town where everyone blinks before turning. Except at this point it’s not only you. Companies fight for better prices all the time. If your price with company A is 10$ and company B quotes you at 15, besureyourpricewillbecome14. Other companies biases enter the equation now. Even if company A is ethically ground, it needs to compete with company B to stay afloat. Now we have two problems:
- your price tag is completely out of your control. You can be the best driver in the world but the lower price will be adjusted to the second company’s lower
- homologation saves money, gentrification and white-washing are your way to escape the matrix
Being the most normal citizen will save you money, unless you’re already over that curve. Having the same email provider as anyone else, living in a big city with the rest of the normal upper-middle-class, having time to do your chores on a weekend instead of rushing after work. Price tags fluctuate according to variables you cannot predict, so do discounts. Sometimes it’s better for a company not to give you your hard-earned discount and being sued, how on earth do you fight against that?
It’s hard to argue against the idea that prices in the future will be more and more personalized, going from airplane tickets and hotels to phones and groceries. With production, storage, and shipping costs made to be negligible, the only variables determining price will be about you.