I can see many use cases:
- A woman going home late after a night out needing to walk thru a dangerous neighborhood
- Elderly Asian person who needs to withdraw money from a bank
- Urban photographer who wants to photograph abandoned buildings but is afraid of squatters/gangs
- Woman who needs to go to a heavily-protested abortion clinic
- Owner of a store that is about to get looted in a riot
- Owner of a store who needs security personnel at peak shoplifting hours
- Owner of a late night restaurant who needs security personnel at peak violent drunk people hours
These aren't practical or realistic use cases, though, and many are already covered by the existing private security industry.
An uber ride is cheaper than hiring private security to walk you through the hood. An elderly asian person is more likely to die crossing the road to a bank than be robbed at a bank. Urban photographers who wouldn't already be operating with a small crew are probably too broke to hire a bodyguard, nor is there some big wave or urban photographers being targeted currently. Chances are if that gear is your work its also already insured. The store owner probably already hires private security for not much more than minimum wage, and in the case of a looting, chances are the store owner would rather you go home and have insurance pay for the damages, than deal with the legal headache of their hired gun potentially killing someone in their store. Keep in mind when D.C. police who were defending the capitol building faced a mob, they allowed them to breach the building. I doubt private security is going to stick out their neck for your little shop more than D.C. police did for the U.S. capitol. You probably aren't hiring Blackwater mercenaries. The owner of the bar is paying their bouncers under the table already, the last thing they want is some pricey contract for a job they are already getting done just fine.
An elderly asian person is more likely to die crossing the road to a bank than be robbed at a bank.
I don't think you've been keeping up with the news of the wave of attacks targeting Asian elders. Many of them have been beaten and robbed on the way to run errands.
in the case of a looting, chances are the store owner would rather you go home and have insurance pay for the damages, than deal with the legal headache of their hired gun potentially killing someone in their store.
You're way overestimating the number of small business owners who have sufficient insurance to cover a looting event, and way underestimating the extent to which small business owners are willing to protect their store (e.g. Roof Koreans)
Keep in mind when D.C. police who were defending the capitol building faced a mob, they allowed them to breach the building
That actually demonstrates the value provided by an app offering on-demand private security. When cops failed to stop the insurrectionists, they faced minimal negative consequences. On the other hand, if your hired private security fails to stop looters, they can expect a negative review from you on the app which in turn threatens their career on the app.
The owner of the bar is paying their bouncers under the table already
I said late night restaurants, not bars. When was the last time you've seen a bouncer at a late night restaurant?
I agree that some of the cases I brought up are a bit far fetched. That being said, here's a great use case that I'm sure we can both agree on for on-demand security:
- Domestic violence prevention. In cases where a spouse feels threatened but does not have enough evidence for the cops to get involved, on-demand private security is the best option.
A tragedy like the Adam Matos case would have been prevented had the victim used on-demand private security. The victim was threatened by Matos, her ex, and she called the cops, who didn't/couldn't do anything, which resulted in her and her family being killed by said ex within 24 hours.
Just like how rideshare apps increased the availability of car services in areas underserved by traditional taxies, on-demand security services like this can provide value in a similar way, by making available security services in areas underserved by the police.
The perceived bad quality of Chinese products is partly a deliberate marketing strategy to make products that prioritize low price over quality, and partly due to lax standards relative to countries like the US.
It's a lousy argument to suggest that Chinese products are bad because Chinese culture does not promote attention to detail because some people sometimes say "chabuduo". One can equally make the same bad argument about American workers, because some Americans use the expression "just eyeball it" at work.
When held to a high standard, Chinese people are capable of producing high quality products, evident in the prevalence of Chinese SWEs in FANG and the fact that Apple and Tesla both have major manufacturing facilities in China.
> It's a lousy argument to suggest that Chinese products are bad because Chinese culture does not promote attention to detail because some people sometimes say "chabuduo".
With respect, you have not spent much time in mainland China. "Chabuduo" is pervasive in a way that you are downplaying - either because you have some agenda or you are not knowledgeable. There is absolutely no comparison between the average Chinese manufacturing process and the average US one. Are their outliers in all cases? Of course. But generally speaking the GP is correct.
With regards to Apple and Tesla (and I would also add Volvo) - high quality/high tolerance manufacturing CAN be done in China of course. But it's only because the Western companies who pull it off have imposed their culture, standards and rules, on the process.
I think the parent author is emphasizing that this culture of "Chabuduo" is not inherent to Chinese culture, rather it is may be something came out of getting rich fast scheme that is inherent to an emergent economic and industrial power.
How about: not an inherent trait, but rather an endemic and “parasitic” meme? (Like the popular belief in eugenics in many countries in the 1930s; or the belief of several colonial powers—but mainly Britain—in the inferiority of aboriginal tribes’ values and beliefs during the Age of Exploration; or the belief in Varna [caste] as a popular interpretation of dharma within Hinduism; or the belief within Islam that a “jihad of the sword” can permit civilian targets.)
These sort of memes come along and “infect” a culture, saturating it — or at least the more vulnerable-to-manipulation populations within it — with these views; and they can stick around for decades or centuries. But, they aren’t intrinsic to the culture; eventually the culture stops believing these memes, because believing them offers no real benefit (thus the “parasitic” part.) If/when they do get over them, the culture as a whole tends to feel ashamed that they ever did believe them.
I don't; I meant to talk about Varna. But how do you localize "Varna" to English for someone who not-very-familiar with Hinduism? Most English-speaking people don't even know what caste is.
Caste based discrimination is not a meme. It’s deeply rooted in more than half of the Indian population and has taken root in the United States along with migrants who brought it along with them and teach their children these “values”
https://www.npr.org/2020/09/21/915299467/how-to-be-an-anti-c...
Yeah, I got that part - and I understand why people would want to believe that because no one wants to believe a culture can have sub-optimal traits. But from where I stand, it is a cultural thing. It may be expedient, it may have sprung from a time when it was more advantageous than it is now, but there's no denying it exists.
I think low quality is only a result of desire to sell cheap, but Chinese producers are capable of meeting high quality standards and out-innovating other countries
The bad habits from communism era will disappear eventually
Of course they are. Like everyone else, they do what they're being paid for. It's the companies that outsource manufacturing to China that create the designs and set the quality standards.
I think 'cheap' comes from outsourcing. There are so many producers in China that have been only doing outsourced production, but now they want to sell their own products. But for the moment they dont have brands, dont know the market, dont know how to approach customers in the wild. So they produce cheap and hope to at least compete by price in a crowd of anonymous alike companies.
In my experience with buying from china, it can be described in a saying that is making rounds especially in marketing gadgets market:
You can pay more, and get 100% of your order QA checked and certain to work. Or you can pay less, and at best you will get 130% of your order because that will statistically ensure there's enough of your order done right in the package, but you sort it yourself.
It may not be true in your experience but it does exist. I've worked in several diverse offices in the US where it's exactly like that. Race/sexual orientation hardly ever comes up as a political topic and colleagues are generally friendly with one another (with a significant number of queer and POC colleagues)
Maybe this is true in a minority of workplaces, but almost every person reading this can think of a coworker who cracked a sexist or rascist joke.
That doesn't count the plurality is people smart enough to keep it to themselves and just let it influence your ability advance.
Sure, and those workers have it great. What about all the other people who have to put up with the other work environments?
EDIT
Also, it is very difficult to suss out this type of before being hired. Most people at least pretend to be professional until they get comfortable.
Why do black people deserve special treatment above other disadvantaged demographics, like Appalachian whites, Cambodian Americans, Laotian Americans, whose median incomes are lower than that of Black Americans?
