> The customer's benefits came right out of the driver's pay check (and health insurance, and pension funds etc). I do think Uber has made (and continues to ma

> The customer's benefits came right out of the driver's pay check (and health insurance, and pension funds etc). I do think Uber has made (and continues to make) a strategic mistake by not becoming the market leader in gig economy support services/systems for its drivers. But there is nothing stopping an Uber driver from setting up a SEP IRA, signing up for ACA, etc. Those costs are the same whether the employee is 1099 or W2. Many Uber drivers already have a 9-5 job and their Uber money is extra income. But for drivers who are full time, 1099 status can lead to bad life planning. I'm not praising W2 employment as a panacea though, as I fear you might be. Many companies offer mediocre or nonexistent life planning (pensions, tax planning, health insurance) options, and so it was really an opportunity for Uber to go above and beyond. I think the future of systems like Uber (service discovery, dispatch, bidirectional karma, etc.) will ultimately be handled through non-profit infrastructure. Without corrupt local medallion services to compete against, an Uber-size war chest is not really needed. Uber could also have allocated a class of stock for drivers and awarded some fraction for each dollar earned, allowing drivers (especially early ones) to get in on the leverage. But it didn't, and it's likely too late. > There are methods to changing the law if you disagree. I'm curious what percentage of laws you think are just and/or should be obeyed on principle and not as part of a cost-of-punishment calculus.