Re:A Driver’s Suicide Reveals the Dark Side of the Gig Economy
by AstralStorm on Tuesday February 06, 2018 @05:12PM
(#16320403)
Of course the part about night programs and scholarships is a lie. Only very few of the best qualify or can afford those programs. Try to spend 12h driving a car or doing deliveries then say 4h in school. I dare anyone who espouses this to actually try to do it. (Note: due to commutes you're forced to sleep a few hours less than typical and so are additionally disadvantaged.)
If this were reduced to say 12h total it is (barely) workable but now were talking about a part time job which can sustain the person for a few years. That mythical beast exists only in a few specialties. (All of them high tech and very well paid. Not something you would expect a typical taxi driver to be able to pull off without education and training.)
Often seeing a therapist or clinical social worker doesn't mean someone will tell you what to do. They'll help you see options you can't.
"I'm so sick of my career" "Well then go back to school." "I can't, I have to live and provide." "Well there are night programs and scholarships and grants."
The medallion system is probably the worst part of this. Either the state needs to come in and offer some form of debt relief (which they failed to do in 2008 with outright fraud in the housing market; bailing out lenders and screwing over homeowners) or taxi drivers need to declare bankruptcy. This is the worst option, because they could forfeit all their savings, retirement investments, housing .. everything because what was sold to them as a sound investment didn't pan out.
What I want to know is: can an Uber/Lyft driver earn that $80k/year, or even $60/year if they drove full time (and minus what they have to pay in comparable health coverage).
The thing I hate to say, but is the reality, is that the Taxi drivers might just need to stick it out. They should get into jobs they can live on, but keep paying off the medallions/permits.
Uber is not sustainable. Lyft has already increases rates in a lot of cities to be more livable (I think they realize a lot of people will use them just to avoid Uber). If Uber's IPO doesn't do well, it could be dead in a few years, and ride sharing services will have to start charging sustainable prices to not end up like them. Prices will probably be cheaper than cabs, but more expensive than what they are now.
If they can switch fields and still make the principal/interest payments on those permits, they might just need to bank on them being sellable one day or sell them at a loss when they retire.