8 ms·
How did you jump to this conclusion?
by negrit 7y ago
How did you jump to this conclusion?
- deleted 7y ago[deleted]
- chrisseaton 7y ago> unpopular with customers and the general public I doubt even 0.1% of people care at all.
- xenospn 7y agoI was under the impression that the only way the Uber/Lyft business model is even remotely viable (without continuous VC subsidy) is classifying drivers as contractors, meaning they don't have to pay them minimum wage or benefits, which lets them undercut taxis.
- ars 7y ago> as contractors, meaning they don't have to pay them minimum wage or benefits, which lets them undercut taxis. That's not really true though. Their pay is higher to make up the difference. No, the main thing is that Uber doesn't have to guarantee them fulltime work, or at least any kind of minimum amount of work. i.e. Uber can say "No work today, too bad".
- ska 7y ago> Their pay is higher to make up the difference. I thought part of the problem was that it isn't, in general.
- ars 7y agoPeople (especially California) would like you to believe that. Uber drivers are rational beings, they know exactly how much money they are making, and they are aware of their taxes. If Uber paid their Social Security and Medicare taxes, then Uber would just lower their base pay, and the net would stay the same. Or in other words the pay is higher because the driver has to pay those taxes.
- ska 7y agoI don't know one way or the other, but I have heard the argument that if you actually do all the math, particular with the reductions in pay more recently, it doesn't all net out. Generally people do not act as fully rational economic actors, so we can't assume that this is not true based on the fact that people still choose to do it. Which isn't to say they shouldn't have that option.
- AlexandrB 7y ago> Their pay is higher to make up the difference. Citation needed. Please include costs of owning, operating, and maintaining an automobile in your calculations.
- ars 7y agoAre you implying that millions of Uber drivers are idiots and can't do basic math to decide if it's worth working or not?
- smallgovt 7y agoUh, no, Uber doesn't have to guarantee full-time work regardless of employee or contractor classification -- hence the term "part-time employment".
- nerfhammer 7y ago1) Uber is a public company now, it has not been VC funded for a long time 2) Regular taxi companies generally also treat drivers as contractors
- chrisseaton 7y ago> Uber is a public company now, it has not been VC funded for a long time I don’t think those two things are exclusive are they?
- xenospn 7y agoAnd it has been losing tons of money for even longer. Without VCs to bail them out several times a year, how will they justify operating at a huge loss in France without a viable path to profitability?
- vkou 7y agoSomehow, taxi companies in France have figured out how to operate profitably.
- BigBubbleButt 7y ago> 1) Uber is a public company now, it has not been VC funded for a long time They also typically lose around $1 billion per quarter. Unless they figure out how to be profitable, they will eventually run out of money. So really, they are still burning cash on the roughly $20 billion of VC capital they raised, plus the money they raised during IPO. https://www.theverge.com/2019/8/8/20793793/uber-5-billion-quarter-loss-profit-lyft-traffic-2019 https://www.theverge.com/2019/8/8/20793793/uber-5-billion-qu...
- lostgame 7y ago>> They also typically lose around $1 billion per quarter. What?! How on earth do you burn through $1B a quarter on a ride sharing app?
- 7y ago
- ars 7y agoIs there such a thing as an employee with random hours? Isn't the whole point of an employee that there is an expectation of regular work?
- _verandaguy 7y agoNot for a lot of minimum wage and service industry jobs. Millions of adults in the western economic world work these kinds of jobs, and shifts can be moved around, shortened, lengthened, or disappeared altogether (via being given to someone else, or because business is expected to be slower). This isn't at all OK, but it's the reality for lots of people.
- xenospn 7y agoI know plenty of people who are on-call or have jobs with random hours (think bartenders who need random breaks for auditions)
- pkaye 7y agoThose are called zero hour contracts. It seems like they exist in France also: https://theculturetrip.com/europe/france/articles/what-to-know-about-finding-work-in-france/ https://theculturetrip.com/europe/france/articles/what-to-kn...
- Frenziefrenz 7y agoYou're clearly not from a place that has tourists… ;-) Service industry in general of course, but tourists vary even more depending on the weather and whatnot.
- pbhjpbhj 7y agoSee that little "?". It's called a question-mark, it indicates the writer is enquiring and not concluding.