131–140 of 288 posts
Or it could be about protecting employee rights against exploitative corporations who flout the law for profit. Edit: and society for that matter. See Al Capone, a murderer, being finally arrested for tax evasion as an example.
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LAX to downtown: Uber and Lyft are cheaper in the middle of the day between lunch and the evening rush hour, and again after 9 or 10p M-Th. Early morning through rush hour, and evening rush hour: 2-5x more expensive than a cab, depending on surge pricing. Holidays: 3-20x more expensive than a cab, depending on surge. I have seen multiple Uber and Lyft fares that would have cost more than the plane ticket did.
At LAX you can walk 10-15 minutes to a hotel and get an Uber for way less than at the terminal.
And, given that those hotels have shuttles, why would you walk? Just take the hotel's bus. (Or are you feeling that that's not cool, because you're going there not to stay there, but just to take an Uber?)
If these Uber drivers were correctly reporting their income (and I can't see how they wouldn't be--Uber surely 1099s it) -- wouldn't each individual driver be paying these same taxes, even as a self-employed person? The self-employed pay into Social Security for both their portion and the employer's portion, this also includes SSDI. I'm not sure how NJ does their state tax calculation.
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I'm not sure why people think that drivers for Uber & Lyft shouldn't be treated as "contractors". I know I'm in the minority on this, but to me it seems that you can jump in and out of employment with Uber & Lyft quite easily, to the point that it does seem more like contract work. As an anecdote, I took a Lyft to the airport with someone who had stopped driving for 6 months in order to get started with a new full ti…
In my book, if you can't determine the price for your service, you aren't a contractor, pure and simple. Uber determines the rates, sets their fees, supplies the clients, and has rules about how many times you can skip/pass on choosing to accept a fare. Uber basically controls every aspect of the entire process but let's people choose when they want to work. That "benefit" is thrown out to drivers so that Uber can tr…
But the criteria have to make sense in the context of the law. For instance, "unemployment" doesn't make much sense in the context of a driver who works for Uber and Lyft. And "minimum wage" doesn't make sense if the drivers are able to decline or cancel a request.
So can you be more specific about what aspects of employment should apply to an Uber driver?
There's no escaping this from states like NJ, CA, IL, MA, and NY. These states (of which I am a member of) are broke with pension obligations waiting to bankrupt the government. Taxes are already high both on income and property so there's nowhere to go there. They have old infrastructures and although the citizens are heavily taxed, government can't make improvements in large part because of lifetime pension obligat…
Yep, I think the census next year is going to hit some states hard, losing both residents, federal funds and seats. United Van Lines did a study and NJ was the top moved out state. Not sure how you can compete with Florida though, when your state has high taxes and it's cold. If they make infomercials for both Florida and NJ or even OH... Obviously Florida would be the better choice. Warmer, less taxes, friendlier to…
Well, it turns out, if they'd have done so, they'd be required to pay taxes on the income of their whole partnership from most of their clients, because most of the companies they do business with are based in Cali, even though all the rest of their lawyers are based in Texas.
Guess how they decided to proceed after receiving such advice from the state?
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Before the smartphone era, the only possible way to ensure availability of personal transportation was to have a functioning taxi & livery industry. The use of medallions was actually to protect the public, ensuring all drivers were at least accountable and traceable and thus somewhat safe, just like today's Uber riders expect the company to perform background checks on drivers. Yes it benefitted embedded interests,…
If "protecting the public" was truly the goal, why not make taxi driving as simple as getting a commercial endorsement on your license? Driving 50 people in a public bus only requires X hours in a classroom and an extra exam (or two, depending). Interestingly, the medallions were affixed the the vehicle (thus allowing anybody to use it), the total number of medallions were artificially limited and the choice parts of…
Deregulated taxis had cartels, increased and varying prices depending on destination and poorer customer service. Bad enough that many countries and cities found they had to regulate.
Now, whether medallions that are separate from vehicle and driver, and thus have a value in their own right are the best way to regulate is another question entirely. In the US specific case it seems emphatically not. Quite why many US cities had such poor taxi service when other countries have managed much better is beyond me.
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Contractors can set their own rates. These drivers are employees.
Taxi drivers don't set their own rates. What's the proper categorization?
> The money that they’re not paying into the unemployment and disability systems is being picked up by the states and the taxpayers. Isn't it true that independent contractors are not eligible for unemployment or disability claims? Yes that's true. Given that, it is false that the "cost" is being picked up by others, because there is no cost here. And given that the state is seeking retroactive reimbursement for past…
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Do you have some numbers to share to support the hypothesis that pension plans will bankrupt these states without new taxes?
It's almost impossible for Illinois to raise new taxes. People are already fleeing the state at an impressive rate, and any tax increase will only amplify the death spiral. We will be leaving in approx six months after having lived here for all my 48 years.
That's what a billboard said on some highway around Illinois / Indiana. :-)
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These talking points died in 2016. Now that Uber isn't subsidizing rides with investor's money and raised their fares, Uber is actually more expensive than taxis in NJ. There's no reason ride hailing companies need to violate labor laws to do business.
Those talking points are 100% true. Uber started in San Francisco. You could not get a cab on the weekend for any amount of $. You could not get a cab to come to the "tough" neighborhoods. This is 100% fact. I once called 4x and was told one was coming - falsely (I did live in what was then a "bad" neighborhood). My roommate walked across the entire city. Uber started with licensed transit vehicles - now called uber…