New York Magazine - USA (2019-11-11)

november11–24, 2019 | newyork 67

We’ll Haveto RelearnHowto

DoWhatOurAppsDid forUs

IN2019,theconvenienceeconomy beganto

fallapart.Californialawmakershavebeenclosing

thelabor-lawloopholethat allowsGrubhub,Lyft,

andDoorDashtounderpaytheirworkers.Uber,

initstenthyear,postedmultibillion-dollarlosses

andborea disappointingIPO.TheAtlantic

declared,“Themillennialurbanlifestyleis about

toge t more expensive.”Whichmeansservices

oncereservedforthevery rich—theon-demand

chauffeurs,maids,chefs,couriers,andmasseuses

we’veenjoyedthankstolooseregulationsand

looserinvestors—willagainbetheirsalone.

Butthatdoesn’t meantheendof theappecon-

omy. Lazinessis stillmonetizable.Thenext wave

ofbuzzystart-upswillprovidenotconvenience

butcopingstrategiesforinconvenience.Thiswill

includea reeducationinitiative:Thosewhofor-

gothowtomopduringtheera of“Uberfor

maids”willbethetarget audiencefor“Duolingo

for cleaning.”(Bigopportunityforwhoever

makesa non-embarrassingversionof WikiHow.)

Meditation appswilltarget thepursuitof

patienceforthosewhoforgotwhat it’s like to

standinlineat thegrocery storeorwaitmore

thanonedayfora delivery. Somethinglike the

rearviewscreensincarsthat helpuncertaindriv-

ersparallelparkcouldbereinventedfor, say,

cleaningleavesfromroofgutters.Augmented-

realityentrepreneursare alreadycreatingprod-

ucts designedtoguidethosewhoworkwiththeir

hands,likemechanicsandsurgeons,byproject-

inginformationandschematicsatopwhat is in

eyerange—ifthat technology becomescheap

enoughforconsumeruse,wouldwestillneed

TaskRabbit? —MAUREENO’CONNOR

ClassWarfareWillBe

FoughtbytheIRS

EVENEMPOWEREDDEMOCRATSwon’t beable

toraisetaxesnearlyasmuchastheirbase,or

budget hawks,mightwant.Butsurelyoneday, a

Democraticadministrationwilldecidetoinves-

tigateandcollect allthecountry’sunpaidtaxes,

mostofthemunpaidbythewealthy. Arecent

IRSauditfoundthat,overthepast decade,

$8trillionwentuncollected—almost enoughto

fundJa y Inslee’sversionoftheGreenNewDeal.

ChloéZhaoWillBeOur

TerrenceMalick

BEFORESHESIGNEDUPfora turnwithMar-

vel,37-year-olddirectorChloéZhaomadeher

nameasanextraordinarychroniclerofthe

AmericanWest—unexpectedly,sinceshewas

born in Beijing and raised, in part, in London.

Zhao’s first two films, which used nonactors in

lead roles, were fiction that blurred tangibly

into truth, and it will be interesting to see how

she incorporates that insistence on authentic-

ity into Marvel’s The Eternals, which has made

her a key player in the future of Hollywood’s

biggest franchise. —ALISON WILLMORE

America Will

Undermine

Its Elections More

Than Russia Will

BLACK VOTERS OVERWHELMINGLY back
Democrats in Georgia, as almost everywhere
else, and when he was secretary of State, now-
Governor Brian Kemp tried to limit voter
influence in ways that impacted them dispro-
portionately. He created guidelines used to
shutter more than 200 voter precincts and
placed holds on more than 50,000 voter-
registration applications, most of them filed by
black applicants. He purged more than 1 mil-
lion voters from the rolls, many for nothing
more egregious than inactivity in past elec-
tions. And he stubbornly refused federal assis-
tance and local changes to the state’s comput-
erized voting system, which has proved to be
glitchy and vulnerable to hacker meddling,
instead dismissing those offers as a federal
conspiracy. Altogether, his efforts to reduce the
franchise have undermined Georgia’s elections
as severely as any Russian hacker could have.
These efforts will only intensify with time, in
Georgia and in other places with similar policies.
Seven police cars cornered a black man in
Cordele last year for shuttling poor voters to the
polls in a car. Dozens of black senior citizens were
ordered off a bus by a county clerk in Jefferson
County while preparing to leave for their polling
site; they were sent back to their rest home with-
out voting. The legitimacy of suffrage will come
further under question in the coming years,
especially for black people, and their white fellow
citizens will grow more empowered to challenge
their rights—possibly confronting them at poll-
ing sites or calling the police on them or even
physically restraining them. It’s not at all out of
the question that the days might return when the
influence of black voters and other unfavorable
constituencies in Republican-controlled states is
negligible. A future marked by perpetual one-
party rule is potentially on the horizon. That it
would be white supremacist in character and
PHOTOGRAPH: MOVIESTORE COLLECTION LTD/ALAMY practice is no accident. —ZAK CHENEY-RICE

SEP 26

An internal

IRS study finds

hundreds

of billions

in “avoided”

taxes every

year.

OCT 03

Mar rsese

say el

mov

not cinema.

SEP 11

California

passes a law

forcing app

companies

to treat

contractors as

employees.

OCT 11

A year

after losing

theGeorgia

gubernatorial

election to Brian

Kemp, in a race

in which he’d

improperly

purged 340,000

Georgians from

voter rolls,

Stacey Abrams

says she

rightfully won

the campaign.