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This isn't about protecting the taxi industry- as you rightly point out, many taxi drivers are also contractors. Instead, this is about properly pricing labor.
by pfooti 7y ago
This isn't about protecting the taxi industry- as you rightly point out, many taxi drivers are also contractors. Instead, this is about properly pricing labor. The gig economy works now because companies like Uber (and many others) externalize the real cost of hiring labor.
It doesn't make sense to pay people low wages to the point where they need governmental assistance in the form of food stamps and BMR housing, and then pass on the savings to private companies who do their best to avoid paying the taxes that fund those programs. It ends up being other, traditionally employed FTEs who subsidize this business model via their own tax bills.
- throwaway1777 7y agoSo you’re saying Uber should have to pay drivers more so that you have to pay less taxes? Sounds like everyone is acting in their own self interest and the market is working just fine...
- mantas 7y agoWhy should tax payers subsidise Uber?
- amundsentb 7y agoyour disingenous use of subsidize leads me to believe your argument is weak
- walshemj 7y agoNo its not that is exactly what is happening, that's why previous UK Tory chancellors where keen on increasing the minimum wage - to reduce the £ spent on tax credits.
- mschuster91 7y agoThat depends on how you determine if the market works "just fine". From the pure view of the 30 year old customer: obviously. Low prices, decent quality. From the view of society: not so much, as society has to now take on the costs that were previously paid by the employer (and indirectly the customer)... think food stamps or social security funded by taxes instead employer contributions to an unemployment insurance, or healthcare given that normal employment would have health insurance but many contractors don't. From the view of the 70 year old customer living on pension and depending on taxis e.g. to go to dialysis treatment: not so much, as Uber, Lyft etc. have wildly variable pricing, compared to the regulated price of a taxi. From the view of a customer or a third party involved in an accident: Taxis have proper commercial insurance that picks up medical costs of people involved. Uber/Lyft/other companies? Not neccessarily and either people are left with the medical bill alone or society has to pick it up. The "gig economy" is only so cheap because a lot of cost factors that made the regular services so expensive are now picked up by society at large.
- walshemj 7y agoYes why should I pay taxes to support a private company that is not profitable without taxpayer support I am in the UK so I don't mind paying to support Medical Training, and training in stem skills those jobs are a net benefit to the state.