"Uber for Armed Guards" Surges After UnitedHealthcare CEO Assassination | Hacker News Reader

"Uber for Armed Guards" Surges After UnitedHealthcare CEO Assassination

gizmodo.com

Economists call this sort of labor "goon work". This include PR specialists, lawyers, police, private security, alarm system salesmen, etc.

Goon work produces nothing, so it is a net drag on the economy. The % of goon jobs increases as wealth inequality increases.

Some amount of goon work may be required due to bad actors stealing stuff, hard to tell what the optimal number is.

Rent seeking is a net drag on the economy as well and goons enable rent seeking.

Police produce nothing? What are you talking about? Lawuers produce nothin? How the hell would either of those be considered goon work? This is nonsense

What do they produce?

I think some law work is non-goon: contract law, family law, human rights law, to name a few

If the idea is that "goon" work is work that exists to deal with people behaving in ways you don't like, those all involve some goon work.

Then wouldn’t all jobs include some “goon work”?

Even the front desk secretary of a mid size tech company has to deal with the occassional deranged person wandering in.

Sure, and when they are doing that they are doing goon work. The rest of the time they're doing what they are actually employed to do.

All jobs are made up of numerous tasks, but just because the CEO tidies his desk periodically does not make him a janitorial worker.

So who then gets to decide the threshold of time that qualifies?

"Goon work" is not a legal or scientific term of art, there is no qualified authority deciding on a threshold of time under which an objective definition is determined. It's not like there's a "model goon" somewhere like there is a model kilogram.

If that’s the case, then how is it any more meaningful than any other random utterance?

e.g. Magical unicorn work, lizardmen work, etc…

The same people who decided the threshold of time where things stop being current and start being past.

It's language, it's describing an abstract concept.

How do you know it’s the same people?

There are an infinite number of possible abstract concepts.

As a warning to all people seeking to verify the claim that economists call this "goon work"... do not just google "Goon work". At the very least, don't do it at work or on a work device.

Trust me.

hard lesson to learn

I believe the proper term is "guard labor".

You are right, "guard labor" is what is traditionally called. I think I got "Goon" in my head from reading that "Bullshit Jobs" book.

Couldn't the same be said for something like medical professions or cyber security? The point isn't to produce something, it's to protect something from being negatively impacted. Or to respond in some way to assess the impact and remediate.

Defending against and responding to harm almost never produces anything but is almost always necessary to have.

However, if your comment was more aimed at the consultant being an inherently misaligned figure with a larger capacity to do harm than good, I don't completely disagree.

Could I order thugs on demand to become a menace anytime I wanted? Say I order 5 to back me up in my local coffee shop. Would my time share security detail be pushing patrons out of the way, as I walk to the self serve counter to add cream and sugar to my coffee? Forming a protective barrier around me against anyone that is wearing some kind of hoodie or face mask, or isn’t fully groomed?

While yours is a very snarky comment...I believe the answer is generally "yes". Drake's security team is often filmed aggressively and illegally controlling vehicle traffic in threatening/unsafe ways - AFAIK they haven't faced any repercussions for their actions.

They (VIP protection outfits) tend to recruit former law enforcement into their ranks so they can maintain connections that allow them to skirt the law

How could you ever trust your physical security with random people from this app?

This app would be a perfect spot for all the assassins to get hired at.

So John Wick movies predicted the future?

surely there'll be some process of background checks

anyone who has ever said 'eat the rich' 'free palestine' 'something in our society went wrong' in sns will be rejected by the process

Past performance is not necessarily an indicator of future performance.

Having only one life means it only takes one 'out of character event' to be out of the game. If I were looking for protection, I wouldn't be trusting 'new people' from an app.

> How could you ever trust your physical security with random people from this app?

Imagine an app where people could sign off to take a bullet for a rando with a target on his back.

No need to imagine anymore.

Imagine an app where people list themselves as possessing lots of wealth and inadequate defenses and then asking for anonymous armed people looking for money to come to their location.

Who is this actually for? It seems like most people who need private security need it on an ongoing basis, not just for a one-off thing. Even if the need arises suddenly (i.e. a stalker starts threatening a celebrity), it still seems like someone who needs that would have it arranged via their management / assistant, and wouldn't have any need (or desire) to arrange it themselves.

I actually can see some situations where on-demand private security would be useful. Say you need to retrieve your belongings from your abusive ex-partner's place (and imagine you're on the lease/deed so you have the right to enter without their permission) - having an escort could be useful if the person is violent.

However... situations like that don't seem to be what this app is going for?

> Every booking comes with a motorcade and users get to select the number of Escalades that’ll be joining them as well as the uniforms their hired goons will wear.

It honestly seems like it's for people wanting to LARP as being powerful and important. Which is fine (as long as no one gets hurt), but how big of a market is there for that?

> It honestly seems like it's for people wanting to LARP as being powerful and important. Which is fine (as long as no one gets hurt), but how big of a market is there for that?

It might be large enough. Aren't there companies specialized in putting up sets for wannabe influencers to pretend they are in extravagant places such as private jets?

Most local police forces will provide a free escort service for someone who has to retrieve belongings in a domestic violence situation. Just call the non-emergency line and ask; they'd rather handle it that way than respond to an emergency call later. (This service might not be available in some cities where law enforcement is stretched thin due to government failures.)

I've organised security for tourists wanting to film in sketchy neighborhoods, and this app would have been much easier. Gig work makes up a surprising amount of all jobs for VIP protection firms, so this seems like a natural progression.

Luigi Mangione, job creator

How long until someone releases one as a CEO honeypot?

"Don't worry Mr. CEO, you'll be totally save in this dark, dank basement. Just let me lock the door from the outside."

what does the terms of service look like on this?

Why is this a link to gizmodo instead of the original tweet?

Xitter has a login wall

No? I can clearly see the post just fine logged out.

The replies don’t show up, but clearly the actual video and description is there.

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