I’m perfectly happy to have a conversation about creating a new employment classification between employee and contractor to account for situations like Uber. But if cab companies are going to be used as a baseline for the discussion, or even have a seat at the table—yea, I would rather trust the unfettered free…

The encumbrances a cab company bears vs. Uber are significantly different. Not all of these encumbrances are necessary. It’s possible to meet somewhere in the middle. Let’s do that.

More importantly, should they be treated as traditional employees? The employee/contractor distinction isn’t some immutable law of the universe—we’re all ultimately arguing about how to adapt existing labor law to account for a new market model.

An apt comparison might be owning a restaurant, while next door a guy builds a warehouse with a grill out back and lets college kids wait tables as “contractors” while only paying tips.

You’re moving the goalposts. You said the review system proves that separate rides aren’t separate jobs of the sort an individual contractor takes on. But on Thumbtack, general contractors are reviewed as general contractors, electricians as electricians, etc. The fact that the market-maker provides an information…

The animating purpose of modern taxi regulation is to artificially restrict supply, though, so demanding Uber drivers to comply with the regulations is self-defeating.

They probably pay some sort of licensing/medallion fee, but that’s just dividing the spoils of a government-imposed cartel. Not exactly a net benefit to society.

The whole argument for Uber drivers being contractors rests on the idea that each individual ride they give is a unique job unrelated to any other tasks, past or present, which they perform(ed) under Uber’s purview. The fact that Uber has a rating system is proof positive that this is not the case.

The dirty little secret is that being able to choose who to work with is a valuable feature as well. It may suck when black people have to wait a few extra minutes, but that’s just the flipside of a coin that lets women avoid picking up men.

Well, it would skim loads of private money for left-wing political organizing. That’s not nothing.

Despite having driver GPS info hitting their servers every minute, the Uber support team gave me the corporate equivalent of a “that sucks dude”.Uber incentivizes dangerous driving, and provides no oversite.

¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Seriously, poop when you need to, folks. Just make sure you get enough fiber in your diet for it not to be that big a deal.

if uber drivers unionize than they essentially become a taxi company. the reason that all of use uber is because they are not a taxi company.

Most cabbies are employees of cab companies that actually own the medallions and the cars. The drivers work regular shifts and can be dispatched anywhere, in contrast to Uber drivers who self-direct both their hours and their assignments.

If they were employees, they could unionize and demand workplace protections and health care benefits and all of the other things that our system provides to employees.

Missed a step.

Still not as stupid as your opinions about “monopsony,” somehow.

But you surely recognize that if a company has the ability to name the price at which they will buy labor they have monopsony power?

Ummm, how does Uber break monopsony power when the purchase of the ride and its pricing has to be filtered through Uber, who can change that price for Uber drivers without any renegotiation?