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Uber Hit with $650M Employment Tax Bill in New Jersey

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Re: Uber Hit with $650M Employment Tax Bill in New Jersey

#11

Post by toomuchtodo »

navigatr wrote: post #10
toomuchtodo wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Jersey City just had a public referendum on short-term rentals that AirBnB spent millions of dollars lobbying against. Lobbied against and still lost by an enormous margin (70 percent of voters supported the new regulation). https://www.nytimes.com/2019/11/05/nyregion/airbnb-jersey-ci... https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=21459486

Yep, nearly 70% of voters voted against allowing short-term rentals. AirBnb spent over $4 million on that local election alone[1]. [1] https://www.cnbc.com/2019/11/06/airbnb-suffers-setback-in-je...

Proof that voting works (IMHO). Local residents won against a distant corporate entity.

Re: Uber Hit with $650M Employment Tax Bill in New Jersey

#13

Post by Koremat6666 »

jdhn wrote: post #3

If the state wins, I wouldn't be surprised if Lyft and Uber pulled out, or at least increased their fares by a substantial amount.

Personally I think they should pull out nevertheless and make an example out of NJ. That should give enough signals for other lawmakers not to come between consenting parties.

Re: Uber Hit with $650M Employment Tax Bill in New Jersey

#14

Post by navigatr »

Koremat6666 wrote: post #13
jdhn wrote: post #3

If the state wins, I wouldn't be surprised if Lyft and Uber pulled out, or at least increased their fares by a substantial amount.

Personally I think they should pull out nevertheless and make an example out of NJ. That should give enough signals for other lawmakers not to come between consenting parties.

There are plenty of competitors in NJ chomping at the bit to eat Uber and Lyft's lunch.

Re: Uber Hit with $650M Employment Tax Bill in New Jersey

#16

Post by atonse »

jdhn wrote: post #3

If the state wins, I wouldn't be surprised if Lyft and Uber pulled out, or at least increased their fares by a substantial amount.

That's ok. They're welcome to pull out. But they won't. Time and time again we see that business rather just raise their fares and make money than pull out of large markets. They are after all money-driven.

Re: Uber Hit with $650M Employment Tax Bill in New Jersey

#17

Post by greenyoda »

Koremat6666 wrote: post #13
jdhn wrote: post #3

If the state wins, I wouldn't be surprised if Lyft and Uber pulled out, or at least increased their fares by a substantial amount.

Personally I think they should pull out nevertheless and make an example out of NJ. That should give enough signals for other lawmakers not to come between consenting parties.

> make an example out of NJ

If Uber left, it would look more like NJ made an example out of Uber. Other states would see NJ's success in beating down Uber, and might be inspired to tighten their own labor law enforcement.

Also, Uber would be leaving behind a very lucrative market in NJ: it's the 11th most populous state, 3rd highest in income,[1] and a large part of its population is in the NYC metro area (high population density, lots of rides to commuter trains, etc.).

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_Jersey

Re: Uber Hit with $650M Employment Tax Bill in New Jersey

#18

Post by microtherion »

Accujack wrote: post #8
jdhn wrote: post #3

If the state wins, I wouldn't be surprised if Lyft and Uber pulled out, or at least increased their fares by a substantial amount.

Closing the loophole in the law that lets them treat workers as "contractors" rather than employees is going to torpedo their whole business model.

In my book, it's not a "business model" until it's consistently profitable.

Re: Uber Hit with $650M Employment Tax Bill in New Jersey

#19

Post by deadmetheny »

Koremat6666 wrote: post #13
jdhn wrote: post #3

If the state wins, I wouldn't be surprised if Lyft and Uber pulled out, or at least increased their fares by a substantial amount.

Personally I think they should pull out nevertheless and make an example out of NJ. That should give enough signals for other lawmakers not to come between consenting parties.

"We should just let corporations do whatever they want"

Re: Uber Hit with $650M Employment Tax Bill in New Jersey

#20

Post by citrablue »

microtherion wrote: post #18
Accujack wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Closing the loophole in the law that lets them treat workers as "contractors" rather than employees is going to torpedo their whole business model.

In my book, it's not a "business model" until it's consistently profitable.

I agree with some of your underlying sentiment, but this is a textbook "no true scotsman" example.
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