Author Criticizes the Internet Economy, Silicon Valley

Andrew Keen, the author of The Internet is Not the Answer, told Press:Here the Internet has not lived up to its promise of a more egalitarian world and a stronger economy.

"At the moment, the Internet is not working," Keen told Press:Here. "It's compounding inequality, deepening the structural unemployment crisis and creating a surveillance economy."

The problem is that the world was promised a new global economy and jobs, but the reality was a "precariot," Keen said, because of the precarious new service economy created by startups such as Uber, Lyft, TaskRabbit and others. "Uber is great if you want a part-time job," Keen said. "People are working a few hours in the morning but they have no benefits, no unemployment and no job security."

Instead, that precarious job model works only with inequality.

"It's a catastrophe actually for working people," he said. "It's great for Travis Kalanick and it's great for the investors of Uber."
The inequality is apparent because only a handful of companies end up as winners in a "winner take all" economy, he said.

http://www.nbcbayarea.com/blogs/press-here/Author-Criticizes-Internet-Economy-303361301.html