21–30 of 104 posts
Their data comes from loan applications. Talk about selection bias ...
There date is from a source that exists, as opposed to not having data. It is a strange complaint to make, unless you know of a better source of data.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
I think it's pretty patronizing to suggest that people spending 40+ hours a week driving for Uber / Lyft are too incompetent to calculate out their own finances. I've talked to a lot of drivers who understand in-depth cost per mile they are able to deduct from depreciation for tax purposes, the impact of buying a new car on Uber black, the cost savings per mile of buying a Prius, etc etc.
> I think it's pretty patronizing to suggest that people spending 40+ hours a week driving for Uber / Lyft are too incompetent to calculate out their own finances. Your average person isn't great at calculating out their own finances. I don't see any reason to assert Uber/Lyft drivers are better than average in this regard. I'd suspect this is one of the reasons 96% of Uber drivers don't last a year. http://www.cnbc.…
The scary part is that it's possible to see a future where a big chunk of the economy is powered by gigs. The uberizing of the economy is just starting.
People say that all these workers will eventually get better jobs but that's not the case. We are hundreds of years into the industrial revolution yet low/unskilled work is still something society needs. For whatever reason, some people just can't get enough skills to move up the food chain.
I wish the new tech entrepreneurs would find a better way to fix the low skill problem rather than find a way to reduce services/costs to the bone.
Their data comes from loan applications. Talk about selection bias ...
Not that I disagree with the more general point that a loan provider's data isn't necessarily the best, but in what way do you suggest there is selection bias here?
The sharing economy is evil. The only making money are the big corporations, the little guy is slaving for bellow minimum wage and taking all the risk on top of that...
Well good and evil is a pretty binary description. You will only have a market if seller (the driver) and buyer (the service operator) are meeting. If the driver do not want to operate under those conditions there is no "invisible hand" forcing them to do so. Of course in lack of alternatives it is a small but easily accessible form of immediate income.
With such a low average earning, they could basically pay FICA on the first 20%, but take the rest as a dividend distribution and avoid those taxes. Would save them about an extra 18(?)% on taxes for the cost of a CPA & S-Corp filing (probably about $1800/yr).
EDIT: Looks like it would be fairly easy..
1) Create a corporation through LegalZoom (~ $400) https://www.legalzoom.com/business/business-formation/inc-ov...
2) It'll take a couple of weeks, but they'll receive an EIN (employer identification number). Submit the "EIN" to Lyft or Uber. http://www.ridesharingdriver.com/driving-with-an-llc-or-corp...
For larger income Lyft/Uber drivers (probably those in SF/NYC), is it common to setup an S-Corp? Or you could setup an LLC with S-Corp accounting.. With such a low average earning, they could basically pay FICA on the first 20%, but take the rest as a dividend distribution and avoid those taxes. Would save them about an extra 18(?)% on taxes for the cost of a CPA & S-Corp filing (probably about $1800/yr). EDIT: Looks…
Without earnings per hour metric, it's hard to make much of this post.
Without earnings per hour metric, it's hard to make much of this post.
Also, the upfront or ongoing costs of using some of these platforms, like AirBnB or Uber where you might have a mortgage or car payment that far exceeds your earnings. A $1000 a month mortgage to make $924 a month isn't profitable.
I think people are missing the point of the article. I summarize that the sharing economy is not a good way to make a living. In search for the lowest price we have people that can't make enough to get an apartment and raise a family. Raising a family has become a luxury for some people. Try to raise 2 kids and you fall into poverty status. The scary part is that it's possible to see a future where a big chunk of the…
Just a few years ago there was a big push in this direction. MOOCs reduced the price of access to college level material close to zero [1].
There is more to it than access, of course.
[1] edit: following others, notably MIT, who have been releasing great stuff for free for a long time, and the Open University who have had great distance ed with online content for 48 years and counting. ('Online' started out as radio and TV shows). MOOCs were a fresh push, not a wholly original idea.