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Comment by greendude29 | Hacker News Reader

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greendude29

Anecdotally:

100% counter to what virtually every Lyft driver who drives full-time has told me.

Data-wise:

Where is your evidence? I thought that by now, the free market would have solved all of the above problems?

Philosophically:

No one's job should be dependent on tips. Tips ALWAYS are filtered via biases that tap into sexism, racism, xenophobia, and never a financially responsible way of building an economy.

Vote no Prop 22, otherwise you are bailing out failed companies that work on unreliable business models.

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How do so many programmers commenting online, who can easily make $150k+ if not $350k+ a year, feel so qualified to weigh in on what’s right and wrong for low skilled, low wage workers, when it goes specifically against these people’s own wishes?

Is it a matter of guilt? You feel guilty for having a decent paying job when not everybody does, and this seems like a silver bullet to fix everything?

A majority of drivers support prop 22, I don’t understand how more people don’t weigh that into their decision making. To you, you want to stick it to the greedy bastards at Uber by forcing this law through, and if it runs them out of business all the better. Have you considered there are millions of drivers that would actually like to keep their ability to work, and this is not just a big virtue signaling exercise to them like it is to you?

It's similar to a lot of the people voting yes on 23: they want to stick it to the dialysis companies. I get that, but how is the prime consideration here not patient care? Drives me crazy how people will gleefully ignore the potential patient effect in favor of "punishing" corporations.

> Anecdotally:

Just before...

> Data-wise:

> Where is your evidence?

Too ironic.

> Vote no Prop 22, otherwise you are bailing out failed companies that work on unreliable business models.

I love this. You're conflating a business model that doesn't work under a set of (possibly) onerous regulations to a failed business model. Who has it failed for? And don't say investors, because these are smart people who believe there is a path to profitability.

Do you have a response aside from "too ironic"?

Uber hasn't made any profit yet. They are a worldwide operating player for years now and didn't have single profitable quarter. Do you call this sustainable? VC money and not paying benefits for their drivers is the only thing keeping it alive.

...no?

I wasn't making a specific claim, so didn't find the need to present data, you know, for the claim I'm not making.

> I love this. You're conflating a business model that doesn't work under a set of (possibly) onerous regulations to a failed business model. Who has it failed for? And don't say investors, because these are smart people who believe there is a path to profitability.

It's a failed business model because it cannot operate once these companies are asked to pay living wages - which they don't. Hence...failed. If I were to open up a factory and paid my workers $0.50/hour and then got shut down for not paying minimum wage; the burden of that failure would be on me, not the state that's asking me to pay minimum wage.

Who cares about investors?

Are you aware that the majority of drivers don't drive full time? If full time drivers don't like it or don't make enough they should apply for employment at a company that meets their needs. A lot of service workers depend on tips.

The service industry underpaying their workers shouldn't be an excuse for expanding the practice. The tip economy should be rolled back, not allowed to spread.

> A lot of service workers depend on tips.

This isn't a good argument that tips are a beneficial practice.

But service workers are also usually employees and have disability and unemployment insurance. They also often pick their shift times. You can have flexibility without being a contractor.

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