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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

#41

Post by ikt »

danieltillett wrote: post #21
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 effi…

I agree with you I think there's too much idealism in here and not enough reality.

For example this: > 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.

is the quickest way to lose all your benefits and gain nothing... why does he think corporations are really nice caring people who will give you a little extra pay for losing the mandated benefits, and not simply cut the benefits and keep the pay the same? Anything not mandated is optional, and if it's optional the employer doesn't have to pay it and more than likely won't.

From another comment in here, I think this is the result of his flexibility:

Most "associates" (your average workers) get 30 hours/week and zero benefits, except when mandated otherwise by law.

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

#42

Post by rspeer »

brc wrote: post #15
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…

Seems to work ok in many places around the world and in different products within the us. You don't need 'group buying' for auto or home insurance, or car or home purchases. In fact group buying probably hinders the ability to get the right product/person match. Of all the problems to solve, it seems pretty easy. Even if that just means groupon for benefits.

I'll bite. Where are these "many places around the world" that have your desired laissez-faire approach to health care? Are you talking about places like India or what?

Also, I would hate to see a health care system as badly managed as Groupon.

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

#43

Post by xbmcuser » 

   Uber should have to follow the same laws that other taxi companies have to. I don't agree with the monopoly systems that are in place for taxis in most cities those should be removed. But at the same time many of these laws are so that taxis are available not just in the peak period but other times as well. So laws that force taxi companies to have part of the fleet available at all times should be also be enforced on uber and other such companies as well.

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

#44

Post by danieltillett »

ikt wrote: post #41
danieltillett wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>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 effi…

I agree with you I think there's too much idealism in here and not enough reality. For example this: > 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. is the quickest way to lose all your benefits and gain nothing... why does he think corporations are really nice caring people who will give you a littl…

Even if companies wanted to do the right thing and keep the overall pay constant (history would suggest otherwise), because of the way benefits like healthcare are treated by the tax system, getting rid of benefits would make all employees worse off - basically more of your income would go in tax. I don’t think this is an ideal outcome.

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

#45

Post by danieltillett »

interesting_att wrote: post #39
danieltillett wrote: post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I am not sure if uber has the umlauts. While I am not great supporter of the taxi industry, I do think that you should not be too hard on the taxi drivers for not picking you up although I do understand your personal frustration. I am not sure how many uber drivers would be happy to pick up random people without knowing they had been pre-screened.

Yeah, I stopped caring about how taxi drivers treat me. Ironically, it is because I can use uber now :)

As a good passenger you want a way of being able to tell the driver this. Uber lets you in effect do this, but there is nothing stopping the taxi industry copying the same process. If they did they would give uber a real run for its money.

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

#46

Post by collyw »

chaostheory wrote: post #22
rtpg wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

As a European, I'll tell you that is a great thing.

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

#47

Post by EugeneOZ »

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…

Do you really think taxi drivers prefer to work with Uber because of lower profit? Like masochists?

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

#48

Post by zaccus »

Natsu wrote: post #29
donarb wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 alway…

I worked at Walmart when I was in college because they paid the highest wage in town. No joke, every other offer I received was minimum wage.

It's not glorious, and it would definitely suck as a a career, but at the time it was the best unskilled work available. If Walmart employees had better alternatives they would take them.

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

#49

Post by notagalintx »

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…

As a rider, Uber has improved my life substantially. A lot of startups claim to better peoples' lives, but how many actually do it? If Uber is destroyed to feed the schadenfreude and ideology of some groups that indicts the political system.

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

#50

Post by Natsu »

zaccus wrote: post #48
Natsu wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 alway…

I worked at Walmart when I was in college because they paid the highest wage in town. No joke, every other offer I received was minimum wage. It's not glorious, and it would definitely suck as a a career, but at the time it was the best unskilled work available. If Walmart employees had better alternatives they would take them.

Yeah, I've been in that kind of a job before too. I don't think you're arguing otherwise, but I would just point out that 'best job available' and 'horrifically exploitative' are (sadly) not mutually exclusive traits in my experience based on jobs I've worked.
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