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Almost every useful scalable service ends up shifting economic gains from labor to capital. And consumers benefit from it, because as a very rough economic rule
by cornel_io 4y ago
Almost every useful scalable service ends up shifting economic gains from labor to capital. And consumers benefit from it, because as a very rough economic rule of thumb, the more value that flows to labor the less efficient the service is and the higher price consumers pay.
From a customer POV taxis were horrible, full-stop, and Uber/Lyft are fantastic. I can actually get a reliable, safe ride almost anywhere now, and that was impossible before (ever been held up by a gypsy cabbie because yellow cabs won't go to certain parts of NYC? Not fun...).
- amelius 4y ago> And consumers benefit from it As a consumer, I don't want to pay for unfair work practices. Taxis may have been horrible, taking rides with people who are systematically exploited is even more horrible.
- scarface74 4y agoAs if taxi drivers weren’t exploited when they had to rent medallions. But if you don’t want to support “exploited workers”, are you willing to give up all electronics?
- cornel_io 4y agoI'm sorry...drivers are making a choice, they are not as naive as you seem to think they are and they have infinite other options for unskilled labor if it's really that "unfair", but most of those options pay less per hour - yes, they don't put as many miles on people's cars, but that's a tradeoff for getting cash now, which is often what people want. I delivered pizzas as a college kid, and made 1/3 of what Uber drivers make while driving the same amount, even accounting for inflation. "Systematically exploited" is a really paternalistic view.