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The gig economy is always going to be more volatile than full-time work. This is why grocery stores had not already hired full time drivers to deliver grocerie
by grandalf 9y ago
The gig economy is always going to be more volatile than full-time work. This is why grocery stores had not already hired full time drivers to deliver groceries, and why there is demand for Instacart.
It's the same with Uber. During a rainy day rush-hour there are rarely any medallion cabs available, so Uber created a way to get transportation on those days (surge pricing) that incentiveizes drivers to work during those times.
So normal (expected) peaks and troughs in utilization result in a price signal that reflects demand on a much more granular time scale than simply a full time or part time worker with a schedule planned months in advance.
There are two ways to solve this, and Instacart and Uber are both following the approach that is more economically sound -- pass the actual price signals to would-be workers, so that they can self-select in an optimizing way.
Nearly ever Uber driver I talk to is very pleased to be able to make the money on his/her terms, even if it's not great money, or if it's not as good as it used to be.
If we create an old-fashioned, industrial-era labor market overlay for the gig economy, all we'll accomplish is taking away some good employment options for those who need them most.
All of the "perks" of the industrial-era labor movement are geared at a specific labor/employer dynamic. Uber and Instacart are shifting that dynamic and doing the work of matching supply and demand to make work available that was not available before.
We must adjust our view of what a "good" and "fair" job is, when we consider that without the matching mechanism these jobs would not exist. Let's not kill them off just because someone exploited a loophole about ordering massive size cases of water.
Ultimately I think the ideal version of "uber for everything" is a worker-owned cooperative, but until VC gets tired of helping to prove out the model, such cooperatives are at a disadvantage. That is a temporary disadvantage. Let's not hamstring the cooperatives before they can even launch!
- thrownblown 9y agoOne of the lessons of Austin's temporary Uber/Lyft kick out was that very quickly worker run ride sharing emerged to serve the need.
- largehotcoffee 9y agoExcept Uber/Lyft are back in Austin, and that worker run ride share didn't work.
- goatherders 9y agoSure it did. People still use it.
- mvid 9y agoI've used those services. They were buggy and broken to the point where I frequently ended up walking in the rain because I couldn't get a ride.
- CryptoPunk 9y agoThis shows basic economics is right again. Division of labour makes the economy more productive and society more prosperous. The investor/worker roles are such a division of labour.
- icebraining 9y agoOr it just shows that apps need some time to stabilize. The early versions of VC-funded apps are not always great either, to say the least.
- grandalf 9y agoBoth are true.
- omegaworks 9y ago> The gig economy is always going to be more volatile than full-time work. This is not an excuse to short-change the people doing the labor. I can't repeat this enough.
- alphonsegaston 9y agoIt’s amazing the degree to which “our business model is treating people like garbage by way of tech” has become a justification in and of itself.
- grandalf 9y ago> I can't repeat this enough. How are they being short-changed? If someone makes $10 per hour some of the time, $8 on average, with some "hours" amounting to $1 per hour, why is that a) unfair or b) a problem, assuming the average wage is itself fair and the worker wants to continue doing the job? From a labor power standpoint, gig economy firms are significantly weaker than industrial firms. Most Uber drivers have the Lyft app running at the same time, and soon enough they might have several more running (including one that is from a worker-run cooperative). So gig economy firms have very little market power over employees. They simply offer infrastructure for matching supply and demand and take a bit of profit in the process. The only way for gig economy firms to succeed is via employee loyalty. There has been some indication that they are competing for loyalty, but I think so far it's mostly just funneling VC money into financial incentives, not long-term loyalty.