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Gig economy can be a victim of its own success if it starts accounting for a significant portion of the labor force. Because of the inevitable political backlas

Gig economy can be a victim of its own success if it starts accounting for a significant portion of the labor force. Because of the inevitable political backlash about its business model. Once you see too many successful companies with workers scraping by, you will also see political demands to treat these as full time workers instead of mere contractors. At that point, gig economy's business model would stop working and these companies will have to live with far lower margins of the traditional industries they are disrupting.

r00fus 8y ago
Unless the end goal is to become irreplaceable (TBTF) and therefore insulated from political pressure. You can see they knew this by the lobbying effort that Uber did to even get where they did so they could ignore laws without immediate consequence.
- mschuster91 8y ago
  > You can see they knew this by the lobbying effort that Uber did to even get where they did so they could ignore laws without immediate consequence. In the US that worked (simply because US politicians can be bought off via Super PACs etc, which is absurd in itself), but in other markets (esp. Europe) they got quite a beating from regulatory agencies.
  - gaius 8y ago
    they got quite a beating from regulatory agencies Not really, the British regulators and courts keep finding against them but there’s zero enforcement, Uber continue operating as normal. The Mayor Of London is weak.
    - mschuster91 8y ago
      Uber Pop (=private drivers) got banned in Germany, France, Italy, Spain and Belgium [1], Uber Black (=cars for hire, with pro driver) got banned in Germany [2]. Given that Germany, France, Italy and Spain are the Top 5 EU economies by BIP (with the half-exception of UK where Uber simply ignores court rules), I'd say "took a beating" is the most civil way to write what really happens. [1] https://www.handelsblatt.com/unternehmen/handel-konsumgueter/eugh-urteil-uber-verliert-prozess-frankreich-darf-fahrdienstvermittler-verbieten/21157952.html?ticket=ST-574798-CePbhxFdqIrGwojlzDsh-ap5 https://www.handelsblatt.com/unternehmen/handel-konsumgueter... [2] https://www.rbb24.de/wirtschaft/beitrag/2018/12/bundesgerichtshof-berlin-urteil-uber-black-limousinen-service1.html https://www.rbb24.de/wirtschaft/beitrag/2018/12/bundesgerich...

r00fus 8y ago

Unless the end goal is to become irreplaceable (TBTF) and therefore insulated from political pressure. You can see they knew this by the lobbying effort that Uber did to even get where they did so they could ignore laws without immediate consequence.

mschuster91 8y ago
> You can see they knew this by the lobbying effort that Uber did to even get where they did so they could ignore laws without immediate consequence. In the US that worked (simply because US politicians can be bought off via Super PACs etc, which is absurd in itself), but in other markets (esp. Europe) they got quite a beating from regulatory agencies.
- gaius 8y ago
  they got quite a beating from regulatory agencies Not really, the British regulators and courts keep finding against them but there’s zero enforcement, Uber continue operating as normal. The Mayor Of London is weak.
  - mschuster91 8y ago
    Uber Pop (=private drivers) got banned in Germany, France, Italy, Spain and Belgium [1], Uber Black (=cars for hire, with pro driver) got banned in Germany [2]. Given that Germany, France, Italy and Spain are the Top 5 EU economies by BIP (with the half-exception of UK where Uber simply ignores court rules), I'd say "took a beating" is the most civil way to write what really happens. [1] https://www.handelsblatt.com/unternehmen/handel-konsumgueter/eugh-urteil-uber-verliert-prozess-frankreich-darf-fahrdienstvermittler-verbieten/21157952.html?ticket=ST-574798-CePbhxFdqIrGwojlzDsh-ap5 https://www.handelsblatt.com/unternehmen/handel-konsumgueter... [2] https://www.rbb24.de/wirtschaft/beitrag/2018/12/bundesgerichtshof-berlin-urteil-uber-black-limousinen-service1.html https://www.rbb24.de/wirtschaft/beitrag/2018/12/bundesgerich...