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Google Takes on Uber with New Ride-Share Service

wsj.com

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Re: Google Takes on Uber with New Ride-Share Service

#351

Post by michaelmrose »

hueving wrote: post #336
jedberg wrote: post #334

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The federal minimum wage for a food server in the US is $2.13/hr. The employer only has to pay more if their tips don't average out to $7.25 an hour. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tipped_wage_in_the_United_St...

Right, so even if they don't receive any tips they get paid minimum wage. It's a bit disingenuous to suggest they make less than minimum wage if they receive no tips.

In theory this is so but in reality you will be fired if you require the employer to do this.

Re: Google Takes on Uber with New Ride-Share Service

#352

Post by mintplant »

mratzloff wrote: post #262
hosh wrote: post #248

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've noticed that too, and wondered about the connection with this. I wonder if this was a similar play as when they opened that 411 service back in the day. Turned out, they were using it as a way to amass a large collection of voice samples. I kinda wonder how valuable ride sharing data would be. They might necessarily have to make a profit directly on that. It might have something to do with their self-driving car…

Route length, duration, complexity, etc. They're collecting baseline and training data for AI cars.

See also: Waze.

Re: Google Takes on Uber with New Ride-Share Service

#353

Post by michaelmrose »

Pyxl101 wrote: post #335
sethhochberg wrote: post #333

Earlier quoted context omitted.

By "less than minimum wage", the poster was referring to tipped wage - this is the lower, $2.13 per hour federal minimum which can be paid out to employees who make at least $30 per month in tips. Since it is expected that tips make up the difference between the tipped minimum wage and the regular minimum wage, yes, tipped employees are actually paid less by their employers than regular minimum wage in the vast major…

I'm not entirely sure if I understood your first paragraph, but it seems like you might have overlooked this quote from the page I linked: > If an employee's tips combined with the employer's direct wages [...] do not equal the Federal minimum hourly wage, the employer must make up the difference. In other words, the employer always needs to pay federal hourly minimum age. Paying a waiter less than minimum wage would…

In some parts of the US following labor laws is less prevalent than others. In many places the employer will simply ignore the law knowing they will face no consequences. Please see the south.

Re: Google Takes on Uber with New Ride-Share Service

#354

Post by michaelmrose »

themartorana wrote: post #260
res0nat0r wrote: post #204

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes, very true. The fact really is in the USA if we eliminated tipping, the cost of the food on the menu would just go up by $X number of dollars, and people don't want that, they want low prices for the items on the menu which is why the system also is the way it is.

I don't believe you. No one I know likes tipping. It's awkward no matter how you slice it. We would all much rather just pay what it costs and not have to tip. -- Looked it up. You were right. Well, at least in the pay structure. 85% of surveyed people prefer a tipping pay structure to including it in the price of food. I think it has to do with the perceived idea that tipping leaves the diner in control and leaves t…

No job wherein the customer directly employs you should give customers direct control of employees wages. Can you imagine the custom applied across the board.

I'm sorry doctor that appendectomy scar is a bit to big for my liking I'm only tipping you $180.

Re: Google Takes on Uber with New Ride-Share Service

#356

Post by michaelmrose »

TheOneTrueKyle wrote: post #94

When I was younger and financially unstable, I had a decision to make. Take a crappy restaurant job or live out of my car. I chose to live out of my car. Every time I hear the argument that people in the restaurant industry are getting unfair pay, I ask myself, "I wonder who made that decision to work there in the first place" Stop this bullshit tipping. These people made a choice and then chose to complain about it.…

If you live in a place where you know your servers are paid less than they spend on gas and don't tip on the premise that they should have made better life choices congratulations you are a terrible person. You could just factor that into the cost and decide if in total the experience is worth it or you could cook your own food.

Re: Google Takes on Uber with New Ride-Share Service

#357

Post by luka-birsa »

Love it how Uber is getting Ubered by providing a service they were supposedly providing but it was only a marketing scam to get around Taxi regulation.

This is proper "sharing economy" where the other party isn't doing this to make a living out of it. I wonder who will Airbnb the Airbnb and is that at all possible.

The end will be the same anyways - both companies are competing for a spot on the customers mobile phone so that they could provide a service when autonomous cars are up and running.

Re: Google Takes on Uber with New Ride-Share Service

#358

Post by acchow »

rjbwork wrote: post #231
ianamartin wrote: post #206

Am I the only one who laughs when I see, "Google, a unit of Alphabet Inc., . . . ."? Umm, who reading this article doesn't know who Google is? That construction is almost always there to let you know who some no-name subsidiary or division of a much more well-known company is. In this case it functions in the reverse if at all--reminding people that Alphabet is a thing, in case you didn't know. Anyway, I just think t…

WSJ's primary audience is folks in business or finance. From my understanding, they have automated aggregators and algorithms that consume those articles, and look for constructs like that for tagging/categorization.

If your algorithm can't automatically associate Google with Alphabet without a cue, you have bigger problems.

Re: Google Takes on Uber with New Ride-Share Service

#359

Post by michaelmrose »

jsmith0295 wrote: post #281
drewrv wrote: post #121

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not everyone has a choice, for example if you had kids at the time then living in your car would be unacceptable. Meanwhile, restaurant patrons make a choice to eat somewhere where tipping is customary.

If you had kids then you wouldn't need to live in your car because the government would volunteer to pay your rent.

Its nice that you think its that easy. People who have never been poor for very long seem to bizarrely overestimate the welfare state.

Most people that fall into financial hardship can either pay the same bills you do or end up homeless. Some portion of the long term disadvantaged can eventually find their way into programs to help them out after years of waiting.

Re: Google Takes on Uber with New Ride-Share Service

#360

Post by michaelmrose »

rubicon33 wrote: post #329
admax88q wrote: post #308

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It may not have been your choice to get fired from the job you had back when you decided you were stable enough to have kids. Jesus you're a prick.

Guess what asshole, if you are so unstable in your existence that simply losing your job would mean you cant take care of your kids, THEN YOU SHOULDN'T HAVE KIDS.

Peoples situation changes in ways that can be hard to predict. People die. People get sick. People get divorced. Peoples family members become ill. People run into expensive legal issues. People have unplanned pregnancies and aren't willing to abort.

Most of the US isn't in financial position to weather more than temporary hardship without shit falling apart. Other countries deal with this by providing a safety net paid for by the increased earnings of all those who don't crash and burn and thus contribute in the end far more to society.

People who hold views like yours instead waste their breath telling others that they shouldn't pursue the single strongest biological imperative.

In sane societies people that make an effort to contribute to society ARE stable enough to have kids. Your view is warped by our warped society.

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