4 ms·

The secret to the Uber economy is wealth inequality

11 points by ot 12y ago

ot 12y ago
A previous submission from 5 hours ago is dead: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8757053 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8757053 Was it flagged? If so why? [EDIT] Looks like the user is banned
- DanBC 12y ago
  Look at the other submissions from that user.
PaulHoule 12y ago
It's really about the service economy, or rather, the low end of the service economy. With the manufacturing economy it was possible for the maker of a Ford to own a house and a Ford, but it is hard to break even by working at a day care center if your kids are in day care. For all the hate some people have towards Mexican immigrants, the Southern California lifestyle and the agricultural miracle of the Central Valley would dry up and blow away if illegal immigration were stemmed. Sao Paolo is a bit like Los Angeles, but has a much higher level of service economy. You go to an ordinary pizza restaurant and the people will serve you each slice and refill your wine glasses and it costs about as much as a discount pizza and no bottle of wine in the U.S.
- toomuchtodo 12y ago
  > For all the hate some people have towards Mexican immigrants, the Southern California lifestyle and the agricultural miracle of the Central Valley would dry up and blow away if illegal immigration were stemmed. There's nothing wrong with that. We don't shed tears that we had to be more efficient picking cotton because we did away with slavery.
Chevalier 12y ago
"These luxuries are not new. I took advantage of them long before Uber became a verb, before the world saw the first iPhone in 2007, even before the first submarine fibre-optic cable landed on our shores in 1997. In my hometown of Mumbai, we have had many of these conveniences for at least as long as we have had landlines—and some even earlier than that." Okay, putting "Uber" in your headline does not make your article worth reading. This article correctly states that in poor countries, there are abundant poor people willing to work very hard for very little money. Live-in maids are quite common in India. Laborers are quite cheap in Latin America. It is not good that so many people are so desperate for work. THAT SAID. This concept is tangentially related to Uber -- in that the "flex economy" screws over workers -- but the idea of an on-demand taxi service has nothing to do with exploitation. Municipal taxis screw over their drivers far more than Uber ever has. If anything Uber/Lyft/etc. empower the driver to take a great cut of the pay for his valuable services, and to shop around between employers for the best deal. Also, please submit links with actual content beyond the word "Uber" and the idea that "exploitation is bad." This article doesn't even attempt to link the two ideas.

11 points by ot 12y ago

ot 12y ago

A previous submission from 5 hours ago is dead: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8757053 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8757053 Was it flagged? If so why? [EDIT] Looks like the user is banned

DanBC 12y ago
Look at the other submissions from that user.

PaulHoule 12y ago

It's really about the service economy, or rather, the low end of the service economy. With the manufacturing economy it was possible for the maker of a Ford to own a house and a Ford, but it is hard to break even by working at a day care center if your kids are in day care. For all the hate some people have towards Mexican immigrants, the Southern California lifestyle and the agricultural miracle of the Central Valley would dry up and blow away if illegal immigration were stemmed. Sao Paolo is a bit like Los Angeles, but has a much higher level of service economy. You go to an ordinary pizza restaurant and the people will serve you each slice and refill your wine glasses and it costs about as much as a discount pizza and no bottle of wine in the U.S.

toomuchtodo 12y ago
> For all the hate some people have towards Mexican immigrants, the Southern California lifestyle and the agricultural miracle of the Central Valley would dry up and blow away if illegal immigration were stemmed. There's nothing wrong with that. We don't shed tears that we had to be more efficient picking cotton because we did away with slavery.

Chevalier 12y ago

"These luxuries are not new. I took advantage of them long before Uber became a verb, before the world saw the first iPhone in 2007, even before the first submarine fibre-optic cable landed on our shores in 1997. In my hometown of Mumbai, we have had many of these conveniences for at least as long as we have had landlines—and some even earlier than that." Okay, putting "Uber" in your headline does not make your article worth reading. This article correctly states that in poor countries, there are abundant poor people willing to work very hard for very little money. Live-in maids are quite common in India. Laborers are quite cheap in Latin America. It is not good that so many people are so desperate for work. THAT SAID. This concept is tangentially related to Uber -- in that the "flex economy" screws over workers -- but the idea of an on-demand taxi service has nothing to do with exploitation. Municipal taxis screw over their drivers far more than Uber ever has. If anything Uber/Lyft/etc. empower the driver to take a great cut of the pay for his valuable services, and to shop around between employers for the best deal. Also, please submit links with actual content beyond the word "Uber" and the idea that "exploitation is bad." This article doesn't even attempt to link the two ideas.