> I don't believe that deciding whether Uber behaved ethically or not is really a useful question (they clearly didn't) in a market where no one does. I look at alternatives. And when the alternative is a corrupt and massively inconvenient government backed cartel, then I will favor Uber.
You're making the point well, that they're not necessarily worse than the system(s) they disrupted.
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> If you want to say that Uber "exploits" its workers, you have to say how.
Here is one answer from "The Market Fairy Will Not Solve the Problems of Uber and Lyft" (2016):
> They don’t pay the cost of their capital.
> The wages they pay to their drivers are less than the depreciation of the cars and the expense of keeping the drivers fed, housed, and healthy. They pay less than minimum wage in most markets, and, in most markets, that is not enough to pay the costs of a car plus a human.
> These [sharing economy] business models are ways of draining capital from the economy and putting them into the hands of a few investors and executives. They prey on desperate people who need money now, even if the money is insufficient to pay their total costs. Drivers are draining their own reserves to get cash now, but, hey, they gotta eat and pay the bills.
If so Uber will eventually cease to exist, and this is not an ethical issue
> The wages they pay to their drivers are less than the depreciation of the cars and the expense of keeping the drivers fed, housed, and healthy. They pay less than minimum wage in most markets, and, in most markets, that is not enough to pay the costs of a car plus a human.
The depreciation and operating cost of a car and the living expenses of a driver are variable by the choices of the driver. I have taken Uber rides in new SUV's and in old Priuses that have little depreciation value left in them. Is Uber supposed to pay more for drivers with less efficient / more expensive / newer cars? Is Uber supposed to pay you more when you move into a more expensive apartment? Is Uber supposed to pay you more if you are married or have kids to feed (which would be illegal). Decisions on what car to drive and where to live are economic decisions made by the individual driver, and if they lose money by deciding wrong, that is not Uber's fault.
> Drivers are draining their own reserves to get cash now, but, hey, they gotta eat and pay the bills.
So basically this is like the economic profile of taking a loan. You get cash now in exchange for additional costs paid later. If Uber's deal was similar to a payday loan in its cost/benefit ration, I would say you have a point here. But if it's more similar to a regular loan, then no. But this gets back to my point that it is variable by driver, and it doesn't make sense for Uber to offer higher rates to some drivers based on their choices. So basically I assume what you want here is for Uber to refuse to take on a driver that they calculate will lose money based on their vehicle expenses. I don't think this is entirely unreasonable, but IMO it's on the driver to make that decision, and Uber is not ethically responsible.
I think this is a perspective you can only really take with a fair bit of privilege since you continue to state that all of these are choices individual drivers are making. For what its worth I share that privilege to a certain extent in my response here. The reality is these choices are not as transparent as you are illustrating them.
Say you lose your job and your pension and all the things that make your life comfortable tomorrow. You have a choice to wait it out, maybe take some time to learn an advanced skill and find a new line of work. However, you need money now to take care of a sick family member. So you start driving Uber...
Yes the mechanics of the rideshare platforms are such that you can start earning money now, but the cost is as you pointed out, to you in the future. So then the question is this like a regular loan, or is it more exploitative like payday loan. I think the lack of transparency and the circumstances one has to be in to even consider these choices are such that make it appear, at least to me, more like the latter than the former.
I think what the person responding to you wants, I know what I would want, is for Uber/Lyft to pay a bit more to take these costs into account. However this would raise the cost to riders, which have already been artificially subsidized for some time [0]. Uber won't do this because it would, to your first point, cause the company to become insolvent.
The assumption that poor people are not making rational choices is just plain wrong. I think the reality is closer to - people are trying to make the best choice they can, but often have a limited number of really bad choices to chose from. Sure some drivers drive an SUV instead of a Prius, but that may have been a function of the incentives presented by the app itself (i.e. qualifying for more exclusive rides, the appearance of making more money from this vehicle, its the only car you have now, etc. etc.).
A company that takes advantage of limited choices, and then offers you an option that appears to temporarily solve your problem now, at great personal expense to you later is in my view acting in bad faith because they are to some effect misrepresenting the service they are providing to their drivers. it is this point, in my view, that makes it look more like the payday loan than a "regular" loan.
You're making the point well, that they're not necessarily worse than the system(s) they disrupted.
- - - -
> If you want to say that Uber "exploits" its workers, you have to say how.
Here is one answer from "The Market Fairy Will Not Solve the Problems of Uber and Lyft" (2016):
> They don’t pay the cost of their capital.
> The wages they pay to their drivers are less than the depreciation of the cars and the expense of keeping the drivers fed, housed, and healthy. They pay less than minimum wage in most markets, and, in most markets, that is not enough to pay the costs of a car plus a human.
> These [sharing economy] business models are ways of draining capital from the economy and putting them into the hands of a few investors and executives. They prey on desperate people who need money now, even if the money is insufficient to pay their total costs. Drivers are draining their own reserves to get cash now, but, hey, they gotta eat and pay the bills.
https://www.ianwelsh.net/the-market-fairy-will-not-solve-the...