I genuinely don't know how to explain that the fact it requires an income of more than 21/hr to meet basic needs is all the justification that should be required.

Maybe if we stopped thinking of employees/contractors as "labor" and thought of them as people it would be easier to empathize with their needs. Do you think that your friends, family, and loved ones deserve a wage that meets their basic needs? Why shouldn't all humans deserve the same?

It only requires that amount if you’re intent on living in the most expensive cities in the entire country.

Yes. All of the Uber drivers and other unskilled labor should move to Montana. That would be super helpful for those needing rides in SF.

Uber was never a career, it was a side gig.

How would you distinguish what job can be a career and what must be a "side gig?"

Sorry, are you not aware with the term "gig economy"?

Uber isn't a "gig" job for a lot of people. That's just marketing.

Or if you'd like to see a doctor sometimes.

That's not how capitalism works and that's not why companies exist. Companies pay you what you worth to them. A company is not a human, it doesn't care whether you have a family and are struggling or not.

The primary purpose of a business is to maximize profits for its stakeholders.

Then the answer is simple, if we want humanism in the way we deal with employees, than businesses that seek to maximize profits for their stakeholders should be outlawed.

Why should skilled laborors be able to raise a family and not unskilled? Like what makes educated people more valuable as human beings?

Almost anybody is able to become a skilled laborer :) all it takes is time and effort.

And a skilled laboror doesn't deserve more than 60-100k/year or more than? Why should everybody's pay be the same or decreasing and not CEOs and VCs?

You should be paid what the market says you’re worth, which is exactly what you can negotiate to be paid.

Which is exactly what we're talking about. Instead of getting paid what we're worth, we have mega corporations like Uber breaking laws, ignoring regulations, and then lobbying for regulations when it suits them. It's rather disgusting.

What laws and regulations is Uber breaking?

Well then the states better get on fining Uber!

They are. It's a problem of the rich not caring and just paying the fines.

We can't all be skilled labourers. Who will perform all the unskilled labour that's needed for society not to grind to a halt?

> Like what makes educated people more valuable as human beings?

On average, educated people contribute more value to the functioning of society. I can drive myself around. I can't perform my own heart surgery.

The argument that all humans are inherently equally valuable is specious reasoning. I can come up with all sorts of trolly car conundrums that if you were forced to choose, you'd make a value judgement about which person to save because they have more value.

We have enough money to make sure everyone can have a home, medicine, and food and water, even if you just drive a cab all your life.

Yes, but not any home wherever they want to live by themselves and not any medicine or medical treatment available.

Some things are scarce resources and should be priced accordingly.

Maybe instead of arguing about who deserves to get hit by the trolley, we should be changing the system that is tying people to the tracks.