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    BobbySeriousHamilton Nolan
    12/07/15 3:21pm

    “Any multibillion-dollar company that does not provide its workers with what they need to live is at its core a leech on society, because it is society at large that has to pay for the balance of those needs.”

    So much this. I’ve always felt that if your company “can’t afford” to pay a livable wage to your employees, than your business model is a failed one, and you should not be entitled to operate an American business, and reap all the protections and benefits that come with it.

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      The_Recession_is_OverBobbySerious
      12/07/15 3:27pm

      I feel like I used almost the same words in a Facebook rant a while back. Not that it did anything, but God damn if I wasn’t write. People complaining that there business will go under if they were compelled to pay a living wage don’t have any right to call what they do a business.

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      burps25BobbySerious
      12/07/15 3:37pm

      I’ve always felt that if your company “can’t afford” to pay a livable wage to your employees, than your business model is a failed one

      Sure, then it fails and the employees get nothing.

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    RemusShepherdHamilton Nolan
    12/07/15 3:25pm

    If you think Uber is scary, consider that this model is branching out to other industries. I just learned recently about ‘Blow Me’ — an app with a terrible name. Its icon is a hairdryer. Its purpose is to line up ‘freelance hairstylists’ with people who need their hair done, ala Uber. Nothing about requiring the hairstylists to be state licensed or even properly trained. Just ask a stylist to show up at your house, and one does. (And cross your fingers that neither of you are a serial killer.)

    The Uber model could disrupt many unlicensed jobs, like pizza deliveryman, package delivery, and auto repair. But it’s going to devastate *licensed* jobs if it allows unlicensed actors to enter occupations where the competition have mandatory licenses. Imagine Uber for home repair, health care, college tutoring or elective surgery.

    I have finally come around to the point of view that Uber is a dangerous and disruptive idea, but I’m not sure what can be done about it.

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      sigmaoctansRemusShepherd
      12/07/15 3:33pm

      Nothing about requiring the hairstylists to be state licensed

      Why should hairstylists and blowdryers be state-licensed any more than pizza deliverymen or cable guys?

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      RemusShepherdsigmaoctans
      12/07/15 3:41pm

      Libertarian ideals aside, it doesn’t matter *why* they should be state-licensed. What matters is that they *are*, in almost every state.

      (It probably has something to do with public safety. Hair stylists do draw blood on occasion, so one would like them to keep their implements clean. Then there’s lice and other nasty transmissible things to consider.)

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    ThrumbolioHamilton Nolan
    12/07/15 3:25pm

    I was under the impression that Uber driving was always intended to be a “side gig,” not a soft launch into the livery industry.

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      Lake Effect WoeThrumbolio
      12/07/15 3:28pm

      This. It could be a nice way to earn extra cash if you have a car and extra time, but I’m not sure why they’re expected to support drivers trying to make it a career. I feel there’s a big difference between Uber and companies like Walmart, that do intend for people to work full time and still not break through the poverty line.

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      ThrumbolioLake Effect Woe
      12/07/15 3:32pm

      That’s basically my take. If there were demands in terms of hours, “on duty” time, etc., I’d see it a bit differently.

      Then again, my biggest issue (if it can be called that) with Uber is the whole “Oh, taxis are required to labor under X amount of regulations? We’re just going to skirt right the hell around those” thing.

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    Paul-WhirtHamilton Nolan
    12/07/15 3:23pm

    If you don’t think Uber drivers are contractors, then you don’t believe that independent contractors should be a legitimate category for any employee to fall under. That’s fair, but there’s almost no definition by which Uber drivers are not independent contractors. They set their own hours, choose their pick-ups, use their own vehicles, and can perform the same work for other companies.

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      sigmaoctansPaul-Whirt
      12/07/15 3:26pm

      Indeed, many of the Uber drivers I see are also Lyft drivers, and also run their own car hire service, all with the same vehicle.

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      iGatsbyPaul-Whirt
      12/07/15 3:32pm

      Yeah, for a writer at a company like Gawker who uses the FUCK out of contractors (or at least used to) to not understand what a contractor is seems like a bit of a stretch. I’m really tired of HamNo just keeping his selective truths. It does nothing for his credibility.

      And Yeah, I will never understand why people hate on Uber so much. The Uber drivers I know earn a boatload. Much more than the cab drivers I know... but the cab driver is a green cab driver so there’s that. I just don’t get this.

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    HodorableHamilton Nolan
    12/07/15 3:57pm

    Uber is new, so this all doesn’t surprise me. What did shock me, and continues to shock me, is that well established companies like FedEx do the same thing to their drivers. These people driving vehicles with the company name on it, uniforms, working routes “owned” by individuals who have bought the route from Fedex, ultimately have to report to Fedex management, working routes that take up nearly all of their time, and have no benefits to speak of other than what they are able to negotiate with their boss (the route owner). It is pretty insane.


    My dad took a job doing this (is still doing it) due to financial hardships, and I can’t for the life of me see how there aren’t more class action lawsuits around it than there are. Meanwhile, my privileged fiance is getting payments for some class action due to a few extra hours she once worked as an intern and my company (a bank) has completely restructured it’s new hire program to pay overtime to any new college grad who (despite making a salary) works more than 40 hours. The blue collar class gets screwed.

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      Gandy GooseHodorable
      12/07/15 4:13pm

      I think Fed Ex Ground lost a lawsuit over that. But they were much more employer-like.

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      Pastafarian KingHodorable
      12/07/15 5:30pm

      Taxi cab drivers in KC are also independent contractors.

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    A House In VirginiaHamilton Nolan
    12/07/15 3:27pm

    Uber began majorly screwing me in February of this year after they launched “Uber Black”— for WEEKS you had no choice of what kind of car they would send, and I would get weird charges for rides that were shorter than other documented ones (the $-per-mile was VERY off).

    ...I’m old school; if I cannot call and complain TO A PERSON, I’m very very turned off.

    Sending customer service email replies at their leisure DOES NOT COUNT as customer service.

    #TeamLyft

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      Vitamin VA House In Virginia
      12/07/15 3:32pm

      Huh? Uber Black was one of the first categories of Ubes available. You can select which type of Ube you want by sliding the selector below the map. These kind of complaints are always user error.

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      A House In VirginiaVitamin V
      12/07/15 3:33pm

      Right, because I obviously don’t know how to use apps on my own smartphone?

      Are you Uber customer service? I went through all this 10 months ago.

      I don’t remember the exact name of the new service they rolled out in Feb that made their system all janky...

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    SpringSprungHamilton Nolan
    12/07/15 3:20pm

    A business model based on paying workers too little to live—a business model in which a company must fight viciously against workers’ attempts to unionize, because unions are considered an existential threat—is not a real business model at all.

    I dunno. This seems to be the same model Walmart has used for years, despite their bullshit “raise in pay” commercials.

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      Hamilton NolanSpringSprung
      12/07/15 3:27pm

      Indeed.

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      kaysey17SpringSprung
      12/07/15 3:29pm

      Ha! I pretty much said the same!

      And it’s sad that American employment/economics has come to this business model. Greedy-ass, 1% bastards. See also: Martin Shkreli

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    skefflesHamilton Nolan
    12/07/15 3:26pm

    Uber knows it just needs to stall long enough, wrap things up in lobbyists delays and court delays, for a little longer for autonomous cars to come on the scene. You can bet their lobbyists will then move from delaying tactics to rush job on legislation mode to get fully autonomous, with no nominated driver, cars on the road and their problem is solved.

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      11223322112233221skeffles
      12/07/15 4:09pm

      No need to wait for autonomous cars. Uber just needs to stall long enough until it completely consumes the traditional taxi/livery market. Then it can set whatever prices it wants and not suffer if courts decide that it can no longer pretend its drivers are independent contractors.

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      Archdukeryskeffles
      12/07/15 4:22pm

      This, The Fantasy of Human Labor won’t last forever. It’s not long till Google and Uber make human drivers obsolete, and then all the hand-wringing about whether or not Uber drivers are employees or not will be a moot point. Robots don’t need a living wage.

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    Jerry-NetherlandHamilton Nolan
    12/07/15 3:19pm

    This is the sure sign that the [insanely over-inflated] stock market bubble is perilously close to bursting.

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      caekislove-caekingitupJerry-Netherland
      12/07/15 3:24pm

      From a financial fundamentals perspective, right now is 2007 on steroids.

      I recommend going long on canned food and shotguns.

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      WhatthefoxsaysJerry-Netherland
      12/07/15 3:31pm

      Uber is privately held so the connection to the stock market is somewhat tenuous. But Uber is definitely symptomatic of the unjustifiably insane valuations given to start-ups.

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    amgarreHamilton Nolan
    12/07/15 3:29pm

    I love it especially that when the “gig economy” was mostly black, with jitney drivers and rooming houses, there was a whole host of dangers seen and government called to step in and shut it down. Now that the “gig economy” is mostly white, it’s revolutionary.

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      TeenaBurneramgarre
      12/07/15 4:48pm

      Is it mostly white now, or white-run?

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      Galdebordamgarre
      12/07/15 5:02pm

      I’m not sure where you’re getting your stats or sense of history from but it’s not really accurate. The so-called “gig economy” has been around for a long time - it precedes the employer/employee economy for one thing - government, when it’s being responsible, fights against it because a) it’s much harder to collect full taxes from independent contractors, b) the general public is on the hook for the folks who don’t have employee-based benefits like health insurance, unemployment insurance, WC, etc. There are different stakeholders in this game - State Unemployment agencies being big ones - and I’ve seen various jobs get re-classified for everybody. Graphic designers who worked for publishers used to get paid as ICs by until NYS finally shut that down in the 80/90s — before that actors had been ICs, now if you’re a working actor you collect about a million W2s at the end of the year. It’s not really a black/white thing unless you’re going to argue that black employment has tended to be more provisional?

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