Secret to the Uber Economy Is Wealth Inequality • Hacker News Board

Re: Secret to the Uber Economy Is Wealth Inequality

#21

Post by kylehotchkiss » Mon, Sep 26, 2016, 9:45 AM UTC

clamprecht wrote: post #8

I actually noticed something when I was living in Argentina, South America (I'm from the US). It was more common for people to have maids, nannies, etc, than in the US. Not super rich people either, just upper middle class people. It made me wonder if there was some kind of "maid index" - an indicator of the percentage of people who have a maid. I suspect it could be used as some kind of indicator for wealth equality…

It's the same for Asia. If USA had no mimimum wage and it wasn't a faux pas to have a working relation that involved somebody working nearby without acknowledging them, I'm sure many many people would also have maids. (The weirdest part is going to a home and seeing your host confused as to why you thank or interact with their maid!)

Re: Secret to the Uber Economy Is Wealth Inequality

#22

Post by gjolund » Mon, Sep 26, 2016, 1:23 PM UTC

erikpukinskis wrote: post #13

The way in which this Uber stuff is about wealth inequality is that there is no "Uber for getting on your feet after serving time for a felony" or an "Uber for teaching high school kids how to get on a path to a good job" but there are three "Uber for cupcakes"'s. There's nothing wrong with Uber for cupcakes[1], and people can argue that we should start there because it's just easier to make money off of rich people.…

There is. It is called Postmates.

Re: Secret to the Uber Economy Is Wealth Inequality

#23

Post by PauloManrique » Mon, Sep 26, 2016, 7:50 PM UTC

filipecalasans wrote: post #11

bko wrote: post #4

> With nothing more technologically advanced than a phone, you can arrange to have delivered to your doorstep, often in less than an hour, takeaway food, your weekly groceries, alcohol, cigarettes, drugs (over-the-counter, prescription, proscribed), books, newspapers, a dozen eggs, half a dozen eggs, a single egg. I once had a single bottle of Coke sent to my home at the same price I would have paid had I gone to sho…

Those arguments is pretty similar to the candle industry extinction. Some may argue that electricity has killed thousands of jobs in the candle industry, including those who had to light the candles every night in the streets. In Sao Paulo, the largest city in Brazil, is facing a boom in the Uber offer. Many people who used to drive particular car are selling them and using Uber has main transportation. This is parti…

And bad for Uber drivers that works 14 hours/day, 6 days a week to make less than 1k USD.

Re: Secret to the Uber Economy Is Wealth Inequality

#24

Post by gumby » Fri, Oct 07, 2016, 12:24 AM UTC

yummyfajitas wrote: post #16

According to the graphic linked in the article, Mumbai has a Gini of 35. That's not very high - it's comparable to Italy, Spain or Sierra Leone - and only marginally higher than India, France or Bosnia (33) as a whole. It contradicts the author's thesis to note that a country with so little inequality as India was (and still is) way ahead of the US (Gini 41) in terms of providing domestic services.

> It contradicts the author's thesis to note that a country with so little inequality as India was (and still is) way ahead of the US (Gini 41) in terms of providing domestic services.

Think of the Gini coefficient as a cumulated histogram of income. The actual values of high and low income are not represented in the Gini chart.

So India has less differential in population than the US but the absolute value of max and min are much lower than the US's (actually the max in India is pretty big but the curve is quite steep).

Also the Gini coefficient is a single number, the geometric mean of the curve. The shape of the curve is quite different: India has a massive unemployment problem and a reasonably large middle class that can pay for service (income is low so the time value of money is low => hiring a servant is worth it).

I don't know what percentage of the median household income an Uber driver typically earns so it's hard to see if it is a good analogy or not. All the studies I've seen on this matter have been biased (high or low, depending on the point to be made) and have been methodologically suspect. It's not clear if it's even possible to calculate it since many / most Uber drivers enter and exit the "work force" casually based on available time and desired compensation.