The Economist Magazine

[genoa]

Statements like this iritate the fuck out of me:

Turkers, despite the fact that half of them have at least one degree, are willing to work for peanuts. (Their median wage is about $1.40 an hour.) Most, indeed, seem to regard the tasks they are set as more like a paying hobby than an actual job.

BULLSHIT! I hate that major articles say this shit. ITS NOT TRUE! Not in the US or Canada anyways. I want to smack the writer of this article.

Why don't you clean up the language a little and post a comment under the article at The Economist's site? It will be read by a wide audience and give a public plug for good requesters (as University of Cambridge). Be sure and mention Turker Nation. Maybe we can get more requesters coming here.

IMO

[Flyfisher]

What an interesting article! There's that trolley again! And the whole public-goods games discussion, very interesting.

I do wonder where they came up with the $2 figure. If we assume they didn't just make it up, then they are using a total time spent on tasks per amount of money paid? Which means it would be a somewhat number higher than $2 when you realize that many of us accept multiple HITS so the timer does not really tell the whole story.

In either case, I'm not surprised by the number since we know that the people here are not the norm.

[missamyliz]

I was just thinking, do you suppose they count time spent looking for HITs? Because if that's the case, then there ARE some days I only work for $2/hr. I spend so much time trying to find one worth my time, that I end up wasting half my available time not getting paid.

[JamesBJames - closed]

What an interesting article! There's that trolley again! And the whole public-goods games discussion, very interesting.

I do wonder where they came up with the $2 figure. If we assume they didn't just make it up, then they are using a total time spent on tasks per amount of money paid? Which means it would be a somewhat number higher than $2 when you realize that many of us accept multiple HITS so the timer does not really tell the whole story.

In either case, I'm not surprised by the number since we know that the people here are not the norm.

A lot of workers do work for that low. I mean, hopefully no one on this forum is satisfied with $2 / hr., but it has some decent purchasing power in other countries. When you consider the median rate, I wouldn't be at all surprised by $2 / hr.

I'm with hreiland on this one, and I bet a lot of us have the same philosophy. I won't touch work that's under $6 / hr. I usually aim for a little higher, at any rate.

[canyon1985]

I would say that my wages are all over the board, For example, a 15 minute podcast transcription will take about an hour and net an average of $2 an hour. Browser crashes or expired security certificates are problems I frequently encounter. Safari is my current browser but I use beta OS 10 and the bundeled safari beta. There seems concensis among turkers that chriomium is an excellent browser. Next week, I will compare my productivity in chrome to my productivity in safari and let you all know here.

[nobody - closed]

People are called names for working for "peanuts", but what is their alternative? If someone is desperate for money, and they have no help in guiding them to better paying HITs, of course they are going to take what they can get. That's just self preservation and human nature.

If they don't have a better alternative, I don't blame them. I have the luxury of being picky in which HITs I choose. Not everyone is that lucky.