Hacker News Reader

Comment by save_ferris | Hacker News Reader

It's nice to hear that a company we all thought was brutally exploiting drivers isn't even the worst offender?

What exactly is nice about that?

I don't see how Lyft or Uber are brutally exploiting drivers. They could be paying more but there's nothing forcing drivers to drive. The only people I see ride sharing companies harming are the taxi drivers who are stuck with medallions.

> They could be paying more but there's nothing forcing drivers to drive

Drivers take the low pay largely because they lack better alternatives. As long as that remains true and drivers can't negotiate pay, the drivers are absolutely being exploited.

Rideshare companies aren't going to raise rates because there's no labor competition to threaten their workforce and boost wages. On top of that, drivers can't negotiate pay.

How many people do you really think take jobs like that with low pay and no negotiating power because they really really want to? Many of the drivers I've ridden with don't have many other options.

But how are Uber and Lyft specifically exploitative in ways that e.g. WalMart, McDonalds, Starbucks, local landscaping companies, etc. aren't? Those jobs all pay roughly similar wages.

Or, for that matter, non-profits like Meals-on-Wheels, Home of Guiding Hands or Habitat for Humanity.

The fact that Uber and Lyft aren't alone in no way invalidates their behavior. "But everyone is doing it" is not an effective argument here. It's a major, major problem that everyone is doing it.

There's an entire political movement eager to campaign on that has been gaining energy the last few years because people are losing faith in the current system.

It doesn't validate their behavior but it points toward the issue being systematic within the U.S. economy rather than due to the corporate governance at Lyft and Uber.

None of those businesses expect employees to take capital risk by categorizing them as contractors. They are quite different in that respect.

I'm quite sure these companies work with plenty of contractors, you just haven't heard of them.

I would also wager that the vast majority of ordinary taxi drivers are self-employed and working for some agency, an arrangement not too dissimilar to that of Uber/Lyft.

> They could be paying more...

Could they though? Can Uber be expected to lose money at an even faster rate?

Reply on news.ycombinator.com