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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

#281

Post by toomuchtodo »

rsj_hn wrote: post #279
onlyrealcuzzo wrote: post #260

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Thanks! So does that mean the average retired Japanese person is living on less than $1k per month?? How are they doing that? Isn't Japan pretty Urban and the cities relatively expensive to live in?

You would be surprised at how low wages are in Japan and how frugal people are to save to supplement their employer pensions. You would also be surprised at how many poor people there are in Japan. The stereotypical wealthy Japanese salaryman has pretty low salaries by American standards. There are also homeless people in Tokyo who sleep quietly in the streets and then clean up after themselves, disappearing complete…

How does the US Social Security system compare with Japan’s when considering keeping the elderly out of poverty?

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

#282

Post by rsj_hn »

toomuchtodo wrote: post #281
rsj_hn wrote: post #279

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You would be surprised at how low wages are in Japan and how frugal people are to save to supplement their employer pensions. You would also be surprised at how many poor people there are in Japan. The stereotypical wealthy Japanese salaryman has pretty low salaries by American standards. There are also homeless people in Tokyo who sleep quietly in the streets and then clean up after themselves, disappearing complete…

How does the US Social Security system compare with Japan’s when considering keeping the elderly out of poverty?

In the U.S. 9% of seniors live in poverty compared to 13% of the population (and 18% of children). Social Security not only does a fantastic job of keeping seniors out of poverty, but for many seniors who lived in poverty before the age of 65, the receipt of social security benefits lifts them out of poverty in their old age.

Thus, social security is much more than a pension program, it's actually a significant transfer that causes seniors to have lower poverty rates than working-age Americans.

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

#283

Post by manigandham »

danans wrote: post #270
manigandham wrote: post #183

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The congestion would be the same if people just drove on their own. You can see this in Los Angeles and New York. The answer to getting cars off the street (whether private or shared) is to build other options that people can use. Taxis are cars too by the way. How did all those taxi regulations improve externalities?

> The answer to getting cars off the street (whether private or shared) is to build other options that people can use I think we agree completely on this, and the best other options in cities are all mass transit, not individual cars. > Taxis are cars too by the way. How did all those taxi regulations improve externalities? Taxis didn't impose nearly the same congestion externalities as ride shares (or single occupan…

As a user I don't care. I would rather have a transportation option than not. What do you expect millions of people to do? Either don't travel or go back to driving their own cars? What is this abstract "social good" where nobody is served and everyone is miserable?

Lack of alternatives is the problem. Externalities of Uber are nothing but political outrage and a distraction. If the govt put even a fraction of the effort in battling Uber into building more rail and bus lines then everything would be solved.

This has been proven by the massive surge in electric scooters and bike sharing companies, which Uber also provides. Are those externalities too? Or do people just want to get around and need ways to do so?

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

#284

Post by toomuchtodo »

rsj_hn wrote: post #282
toomuchtodo wrote: post #281

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How does the US Social Security system compare with Japan’s when considering keeping the elderly out of poverty?

In the U.S. 9% of seniors live in poverty compared to 13% of the population (and 18% of children). Social Security not only does a fantastic job of keeping seniors out of poverty, but for many seniors who lived in poverty before the age of 65, the receipt of social security benefits lifts them out of poverty in their old age. Thus, social security is much more than a pension program, it's actually a significant trans…

Thank so much for the reply.

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

#285

Post by malandrew »

learc83 wrote: post #219
manigandham wrote: post #183

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The congestion would be the same if people just drove on their own. You can see this in Los Angeles and New York. The answer to getting cars off the street (whether private or shared) is to build other options that people can use. Taxis are cars too by the way. How did all those taxi regulations improve externalities?

There's studies that show uber increasing congestion. It makes sense when you think about it. Uber drivers are routinely on the road with no passengers. Either waiting or driving to or from picking up a passenger.

Many of these studies are fraught with problems. The one that researched SF congestion for example almost perfectly coincides with the multi-year construction on Van Ness completely disrupting north-south traffic in the city.

You also have more and more people in every growing city supercommuting due to rising housing costs. A lot of these supercommuters are driving their own personal vehicle because they are now living in places where a personal vehicle is a necessity. Once you have your own personal vehicle for local use, it's economically advantageous to use it for commuting to work.

Given all the changes in growing cities in the past 5-10 years, you couldn't even begin to isolate the cause of congestion down to just one cause, but that's what these studies falsely claim because they don't understand the null hypothesis and that correlation does not imply causation.

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

#286

Post by malandrew »

derrick_jensen wrote: post #188
xenocyon wrote: post #109

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You make reference to protecting mass transit as well as to the cost to consumers. These arguments make sense if there are zero externalities, but unfortunately there are: carbon footprint, both directly as well as second order effects from increased congestion, commercial exploitation of subsidized infrastructure, increased collision risk to cyclists and vulnerable road users, abuse of contract law by preventing ind…

Uber could very easily reduce carbon emissions if they bias their payments/ride assignments towards EVs and other efficient vehicles. I'm not sure about the legality of that, but its definitely an interesting idea if they need to pull some PR shenanigans. >Commercial exploitation of subsidized infrastructure What makes trucking different than Uber in this scenario? Is driving my own car around not abusing the infrast…

> if they bias their payments/ride assignments towards EVs and other efficient vehicles.

This happens naturally. From a previous calculation I did, I estimate that a hybrid Prius allows a full-time rideshare driver to gross more than $500 each month than a typical ICE sedan. The economics of more efficient vehicles biases drivers to get more efficient vehicles with fewer externalities. This is why Priuses and other hybrid cars are the most common vehicles used by rideshare drivers.

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

#287

Post by malandrew »

9HZZRfNlpR wrote: post #148
username90 wrote: post #146

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Uber basically controls every aspect of the entire process but let's people choose when they want to work. No, the main benefit is that Uber doesn't choose who can drive, anyone can sign up and start driving. I don't see how you can classify them as employees without Uber having any selection criteria at all for the drivers except that they have a valid drivers licence. The workers choose to work at Uber, Uber didn…

What about drivers rating?

The company doesn't give out driver ratings. Other marketplace participants do.

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

#288

Post by ganitarashid »

ganitarashid wrote: post #230

This is not Uber's real problem. The much bigger problem is that Uber's business model by definition cannot be profitable, and here is why: Let's start with the costs of the business model. What are the two costs involved in transporting a customer from point A to point B? They are: - The car’s time - The (human) driver’s time Operating or leasing a car for a certain amount of time (maintenance/insurance/gasoline) ha…

I know Uber shareholders do not like to hear this.
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