3 ms·
>like Uber, Lyft, Airbnb, and the rest of the renting economy. (Please, let’s stop calling it the “sharing economy”: Sharing doesn’t involve money.) This reall
by rtpg 12y ago
>like Uber, Lyft, Airbnb, and the rest of the renting economy. (Please, let’s stop calling it the “sharing economy”: Sharing doesn’t involve money.)
This really does hit the mark in qualifying the sort of feeling I get when Airbnb and Uber talk about the sharing economy. The big winners don't seem to be of the "sharing/driving a couple hours a week" variety, but of the "capitalists running their usual games" variety.
Not that there's a major issue on this, but the way these companies present themselves as "helping soccer moms make a little cash" has always felt slightly disingenuous.
- joshwa 12y agoI always liked "The 1099 Economy": http://nymag.com/daily/intelligencer/2014/09/silicon-valleys-contract-worker-problem.html http://nymag.com/daily/intelligencer/2014/09/silicon-valleys...
- 7Figures2Commas 12y agoThe problem, as the article points out, is that many of these companies may be misclassifying their workers. Uber has been sued over this[1], and most recently, Handy was sued for a variety of labor violations, including misclassification[2]. Ironically, I pointed out that a description of Handy's operations published in an article raised questions about classification a few weeks before the lawsuit was filed[3]. There's nothing wrong with self-employment (it's great), but most of these startups in no way, shape or form represent the true "1099 economy." It's a total misnomer. [1] http://uberlawsuit.com/ http://uberlawsuit.com/ [2] http://www.businessinsider.com/handy-cleaning-lawsuit-2014-11 http://www.businessinsider.com/handy-cleaning-lawsuit-2014-1... [3] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8489834 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8489834