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Hillary Clinton Plans to Campaign Against Uber’s Contractor Economy

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Re: Hillary Clinton Plans to Campaign Against Uber’s Contractor Economy

#21

Post by danieltillett »

brc wrote: post #7

The reason airbnb and uber exist is because the prior business models are broken with regards to a big enough portion of their potential customers. A conversation with the average taxi driver will reveal the job is no ticket to the high life or consistent pay. The way forward is to get rid of the concept of 'benefits' packages and just let people work for a gross pay and let themselves choose their own benefits from…

>The way forward is to get rid of the concept of 'benefits' packages and just let people work for a gross pay and let themselves choose their own benefits from that.

Well until you change the tax laws any such change is just going to result in a pay cut. The whole reason things like healthcare are offered as benefits rather than straight salary is because benefits are tax efficient.

>Ultimate flexibility is what efficient economies are about. Unions don't like that future and understandably try and fight it. It's a futile fight in the end.

Sure get rid of the unions, but let employers band together in trade associations. I am sure that these employer organisations would never collude to hold down wages.

Edit. It is good to see that everyone here has forgotten about all the big tech companies banding together to hold down tech wages.

Re: Hillary Clinton Plans to Campaign Against Uber’s Contractor Economy

#22

Post by chaostheory »

rtpg wrote: post #17
brc wrote: post #7

The reason airbnb and uber exist is because the prior business models are broken with regards to a big enough portion of their potential customers. A conversation with the average taxi driver will reveal the job is no ticket to the high life or consistent pay. The way forward is to get rid of the concept of 'benefits' packages and just let people work for a gross pay and let themselves choose their own benefits from…

You do realize we had a time before unions and common benefits right? What makes this time any different?

Well today the government (i.e. tax payers) will subsidize a good portion of health care

Re: Hillary Clinton Plans to Campaign Against Uber’s Contractor Economy

#23

Post by mbreese »

gedy wrote: post #19
Arainach wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Without the bargaining power of large groups of employees, how will reasonable costs and levels of service be maintained? It's well established that people on their own without insurance get charged much higher rates than people with insurance get charged for the same procedures at the same hospitals. Presumably the same effects apply to individuals trying to obtain a price for insurance versus an employer bargaining…

My group policy cost more (~60%) working at a corporation than my paying for it on my own - because they are averaging costs for everyone.

Are you sure you're making an apples to apples comparison?

Re: Hillary Clinton Plans to Campaign Against Uber’s Contractor Economy

#24

Post by danieltillett »

ageek123 wrote: post #11
brc wrote: post #7

The reason airbnb and uber exist is because the prior business models are broken with regards to a big enough portion of their potential customers. A conversation with the average taxi driver will reveal the job is no ticket to the high life or consistent pay. The way forward is to get rid of the concept of 'benefits' packages and just let people work for a gross pay and let themselves choose their own benefits from…

> The way forward is ton get rid of the concept of 'benefits' packages and just let people work for a gross pay and let themselves choose their own benefits from that. This. Among other things, it would go a long way towards fixing the health insurance problems in the country. One of the reasons the private health insurance market is so dysfunctional is that relatively few people participate in it (most people are co…

The way the rest of the world has “fixed” health insurance is to have the state involved. Even the USA does this for anyone over 65 (where most of the spending occurs) and for anyone who is a veteran. For some reason covering the young and healthy seems too hard. It is almost as though there is a huge vested interest keen on maintaining the status quo at the expense of everyone else. Given that only unions are evil this could not be true.

Re: Hillary Clinton Plans to Campaign Against Uber’s Contractor Economy

#26

Post by comrade1 »

I know my opinion won't be popular on HN, but looking at uber, especially, and similar companies from the outside (American living in Europe the last 6 years), the u.s. appears to be in a race to the bottom, with people competing to lower their own wages.

I like uber but I think they f*cked themselves over and deserve every bit of scrutiny they are getting. There are markets where they don't screw over the drivers, for example where I live in Zurich uber is the same price as a cab but it's more convenient because of the app.

If uber was truly beneficial to their drivers in the u.s. They wouldn't be under this scrutiny. They deserve whatever pain they receive and hopefully someone more responsible will take over the market.

Good luck fighting the political class. Uber will lose this fight.

Re: Hillary Clinton Plans to Campaign Against Uber’s Contractor Economy

#27

Post by joinjune »

comrade1 wrote: post #26

I know my opinion won't be popular on HN, but looking at uber, especially, and similar companies from the outside (American living in Europe the last 6 years), the u.s. appears to be in a race to the bottom, with people competing to lower their own wages. I like uber but I think they f*cked themselves over and deserve every bit of scrutiny they are getting. There are markets where they don't screw over the drivers, f…

Uber will fight the laws for at least a couple of years and by then be half way through replacing the entire labor force with autonomous cars. This is a political tactic designed to get Hillary points in the media. She's smart enough to know it'll have little to no long term impact.

Re: Hillary Clinton Plans to Campaign Against Uber’s Contractor Economy

#28

Post by jlebar »

comrade1 wrote: post #26

I know my opinion won't be popular on HN, but looking at uber, especially, and similar companies from the outside (American living in Europe the last 6 years), the u.s. appears to be in a race to the bottom, with people competing to lower their own wages. I like uber but I think they f*cked themselves over and deserve every bit of scrutiny they are getting. There are markets where they don't screw over the drivers, f…

> If uber was truly beneficial to their drivers in the u.s. They wouldn't be under this scrutiny.

Isn't this the wrong question?

I should think the relevant question is, "is Uber beneficial to society as a whole?" It's entirely possible that drivers would be better off without Uber but that society is better off with Uber.

Re: Hillary Clinton Plans to Campaign Against Uber’s Contractor Economy

#29

Post by Natsu »

donarb wrote: post #16
Natsu wrote: post #6

Hillary sat on the board of Wal-Mart from 1986 to 1992 and there aren't many places that exploit their workers much more than they do. It would have been nice if she had done some campaigning on behalf of workers back then.

That was back when Sam Walton was alive and pushing Buy American. Walmart went to shit after he died.

Was it actually better for workers back then? As far as I ever knew, they've always had a habit of squeezing everyone for a little more every year and whatnot. Most "associates" (your average workers) get 30 hours/week and zero benefits, except when mandated otherwise by law, with ridiculously strict timing on things like breaks. Heck, they even specifically manage the number of cashiers to ensure that there is always a line as long as they have customers... even at 3 AM in the morning.

And that's without going into all the random horror stories, like the workers locked inside doing inventory and unable to get someone to an ambulance, e.g.: http://www.nytimes.com/2004/01/18/us/workers-assail-night-lo...

Re: Hillary Clinton Plans to Campaign Against Uber’s Contractor Economy

#30

Post by vehementi »

comrade1 wrote: post #26

I know my opinion won't be popular on HN, but looking at uber, especially, and similar companies from the outside (American living in Europe the last 6 years), the u.s. appears to be in a race to the bottom, with people competing to lower their own wages. I like uber but I think they f*cked themselves over and deserve every bit of scrutiny they are getting. There are markets where they don't screw over the drivers, f…

> They wouldn't be under this scrutiny

They're getting the scrutiny because of lobbying & taxi cartels, not because of poor mistreated drivers.

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