Not at all. Children are not able to make many legal decisions for themselves. As a society we make this distinction repeatedly from contract law to sexual inte

Not at all. Children are not able to make many legal decisions for themselves. As a society we make this distinction repeatedly from contract law to sexual intercourse. And we’ve decided that whatever economic inefficiencies arise are worth the social gains. This however is very different. Adults (in the US) are allowed to willfully enter into mostly any sort of agreement with another consenting party. In areas where that’s not the case, there is usually some other greater fundamental social protection that we seek to prioritize (i.e. you cannot legally permit someone to murder you). This law however continues to encroach on the things that free individuals can do. If I want to work for Uber under the terms that apparently many millions of others also want to, then that is my right. The government is effectively seeking to make this illegal...for my own protection. The issue here is that 99% of HN commentators, politicians, etc have no experience in the gig economy yet project their own ideology onto the situation. Would it be better for workers if Uber provided more benefits? Sure. But Uber loses billions every quarter. So who pays for this? If Uber doesn’t pass on the costs to consumers, it goes bust. If Uber does, there’s a good chance that consumers spend less, or use alternatives. Either way it is likely to harm drivers. The beauty of a free market is that if Uber was legitimately a bad deal for drivers, they would have never had a business in the first place.