[anon373839]

> To be under threat of not getting paid at all.

If they are operating as described, it’s almost certainly illegal. They deserve to be hit with a nice, fat PAGA lawsuit. These workers would have to satisfy the “ABC test” to be exempt from minimum wage obligations, and it’s a difficult standard to meet: https://www.labor.ca.gov/employmentstatus/abctest/

> I want to ask who is advising these startups regarding how they think of their place in the world, relative to other humans?

To me, this has been one of the most dispiriting things to witness in the last few years: not just the normalization, but the outright glorification, of indecency. Shameful.