4 ms·

I doubt this is correct. “It’s expensive to be poor” — a lot of people who can’t afford cars (or have bad credit) end up Ubering to/from work every day

by smt88 2mo ago

epolanski 2mo ago
How can that be anywhere near financially sustainable.
- Cider9986 2mo ago
  It's not. It's expensive to be poor.
- reaperducer 2mo ago
  How can that be anywhere near financially sustainable. All you have to do is basic math. Monthly car payment (which is higher if you're poor) + monthly gas spent (which is higher if you buy it in a poor neighborhood) + monthly insurance (which is likely to be higher if you're poor, and/or live in a poor neighborhood) + maintenance is very often far less than what it costs to take a rideshare ride 14 times a week. When I drove for Uber, about 20% of my rides were people commuting to and from work who could not afford a car.
  - epolanski 2mo ago
    Aren't you going 20 times per month, twice, that's 40 rides. At an average 25$ you're spending 1'000$/month on Uber.
    - reaperducer 2mo ago
      Aren't you going 20 times per week, twice, that's 40 rides. Work 5 days a week = 10 rides. Plus four rides on the weekend, or not. That's why I used 14. Where do you get 40 rides per week? At an average 25$ you're spending 1'000$/month on Uber. Even if someone did 40 rides per week at your posited average of $25/ride, that's $4,000, not $1,000. Are you letting an LLM do math for you?
      - deleted 2mo ago
        [deleted]
      - surajrmal 2mo ago
        40 rides a month, not week. I'm not sure you're in a position to accuse folks of not doing math when you don't seem to read very well.
        reaperducer 2mo ago
        Read what I quoted. He edited his comment after I replied.
      - ssl-3 2mo ago
        They showed their work and named their units. Their math is fine. If work happens 5 days per week, each workday requires two rides, and there are 4 weeks in a month, then there are 40 rides per month. If each of those rides costs $25, then: 5 × 2 × 4 × $25 = $1,000, per month
        reaperducer 2mo ago
        But he didn't state per month. He stated per week, then went back and changed his comment after I replied. Guess you didn't notice that I quoted him.
        ssl-3 2mo ago
        You're so right! That's such a great load-bearing detail! I especially liked the part where you quoted "1'000$/month" and got yourself all confused about the intended conclusion anyway! Good chat, my friend!
      - epolanski 2mo ago
        You knew very well there was a typo in the first sentence, and decided to look foolish none the less. It was clearly a per month calculation.
- djeastm 2mo ago
  >How can that be anywhere near financially sustainable. It's not and it's indeed a very sad statement on public transport. My father has spent some time in his retirement Uber-ing and said it was shocking to him how many repeat customers he got that were having to spend so much just to get to a minimum wage job.
- powersurge360 2mo ago
  If you are curious about this, I recommend There’s No Place for Us: Working and Homeless in America. It covers how some folks, with no credit, are forced to live in extended stay hotels (where they take cash up front and don’t run credit) which can cost multiple times what rent can cost. If you put the author, Brian Goldstone, into YouTube, you can find some recent news coverage of some of the folks from the book and iirc one of them is Ubering in a lemon, working 60-80 hours a week just to break even. In America, unfortunately, we’ve perfected the debt trap and turned poverty into a profit center. The same equity companies own rental properties, extended stay hotels, and storage locations so they can vertically integrate homelessness.
  - fragmede 2mo ago
    The most evil thing I heard was companies like Doordash and Uber buying up data on who has credit card debt, so they know which driver is more desperate for cash, so they can low-ball them and give them a worse offer because they're more likely to take it because they're desperate for it.
    - weird-eye-issue 2mo ago
      Wow that's terrible but also pretty smart...
    - frenchtoast8 2mo ago
      Where is the proof of any of this? There are too many conspiracy theories about gig work. There was a similar post on HN a few months back[1] based on some anonymous vagueposter on Reddit, again without evidence. Would I be surprised if this is true? Of course not. Should we just start believing random things without any critical thinking? No. ^1: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46461563 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46461563
      - fragmede 2mo ago
        https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Cunningham%27s_Law https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Cunningham%27s_Law
- heylook 2mo ago
  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boots_theory https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boots_theory
- DonsDiscountGas 2mo ago
  Carpooling?

I doubt this is correct. “It’s expensive to be poor” — a lot of people who can’t afford cars (or have bad credit) end up Ubering to/from work every day

by smt88 2mo ago

I doubt this is correct. “It’s expensive to be poor” — a lot of people who can’t afford cars (or have bad credit) end up Ubering to/from work every day

epolanski 2mo ago

How can that be anywhere near financially sustainable.

Cider9986 2mo ago
It's not. It's expensive to be poor.
reaperducer 2mo ago
How can that be anywhere near financially sustainable. All you have to do is basic math. Monthly car payment (which is higher if you're poor) + monthly gas spent (which is higher if you buy it in a poor neighborhood) + monthly insurance (which is likely to be higher if you're poor, and/or live in a poor neighborhood) + maintenance is very often far less than what it costs to take a rideshare ride 14 times a week. When I drove for Uber, about 20% of my rides were people commuting to and from work who could not afford a car.
- epolanski 2mo ago
  Aren't you going 20 times per month, twice, that's 40 rides. At an average 25$ you're spending 1'000$/month on Uber.
  - reaperducer 2mo ago
    Aren't you going 20 times per week, twice, that's 40 rides. Work 5 days a week = 10 rides. Plus four rides on the weekend, or not. That's why I used 14. Where do you get 40 rides per week? At an average 25$ you're spending 1'000$/month on Uber. Even if someone did 40 rides per week at your posited average of $25/ride, that's $4,000, not $1,000. Are you letting an LLM do math for you?
    - deleted 2mo ago
      [deleted]
    - surajrmal 2mo ago
      40 rides a month, not week. I'm not sure you're in a position to accuse folks of not doing math when you don't seem to read very well.
      - reaperducer 2mo ago
        Read what I quoted. He edited his comment after I replied.
    - ssl-3 2mo ago
      They showed their work and named their units. Their math is fine. If work happens 5 days per week, each workday requires two rides, and there are 4 weeks in a month, then there are 40 rides per month. If each of those rides costs $25, then: 5 × 2 × 4 × $25 = $1,000, per month
      - reaperducer 2mo ago
        But he didn't state per month. He stated per week, then went back and changed his comment after I replied. Guess you didn't notice that I quoted him.
        ssl-3 2mo ago
        You're so right! That's such a great load-bearing detail! I especially liked the part where you quoted "1'000$/month" and got yourself all confused about the intended conclusion anyway! Good chat, my friend!
    - epolanski 2mo ago
      You knew very well there was a typo in the first sentence, and decided to look foolish none the less. It was clearly a per month calculation.
djeastm 2mo ago
>How can that be anywhere near financially sustainable. It's not and it's indeed a very sad statement on public transport. My father has spent some time in his retirement Uber-ing and said it was shocking to him how many repeat customers he got that were having to spend so much just to get to a minimum wage job.
powersurge360 2mo ago
If you are curious about this, I recommend There’s No Place for Us: Working and Homeless in America. It covers how some folks, with no credit, are forced to live in extended stay hotels (where they take cash up front and don’t run credit) which can cost multiple times what rent can cost. If you put the author, Brian Goldstone, into YouTube, you can find some recent news coverage of some of the folks from the book and iirc one of them is Ubering in a lemon, working 60-80 hours a week just to break even. In America, unfortunately, we’ve perfected the debt trap and turned poverty into a profit center. The same equity companies own rental properties, extended stay hotels, and storage locations so they can vertically integrate homelessness.
- fragmede 2mo ago
  The most evil thing I heard was companies like Doordash and Uber buying up data on who has credit card debt, so they know which driver is more desperate for cash, so they can low-ball them and give them a worse offer because they're more likely to take it because they're desperate for it.
  - weird-eye-issue 2mo ago
    Wow that's terrible but also pretty smart...
  - frenchtoast8 2mo ago
    Where is the proof of any of this? There are too many conspiracy theories about gig work. There was a similar post on HN a few months back[1] based on some anonymous vagueposter on Reddit, again without evidence. Would I be surprised if this is true? Of course not. Should we just start believing random things without any critical thinking? No. ^1: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46461563 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46461563
    - fragmede 2mo ago
      https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Cunningham%27s_Law https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Cunningham%27s_Law
heylook 2mo ago
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boots_theory https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boots_theory
DonsDiscountGas 2mo ago
Carpooling?