Gig economy companies spent more than $200M to bankroll Proposition 22

Re:Gig economy companies spent more than $200M to bankroll P... by bumby on Friday November 13, 2020 @10:07AM (#25082990)

Do you have insight into your father's perspective between the two? I've heard that cab driving, particularly in major metropolitan areas, was a racket in it's own sense (in terms of medallions being a form of indentured servitude) but I'd be curious if Uber has alleviated some of this or just caused people to leap from the frying pan into the fire.

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Re:Gig economy companies spent more than $200M to bankroll P... by sojournerc on Friday November 13, 2020 @10:37AM (#25083338)

I drove a cab for a summer after college, just before uber blew up.

The lease for the cab was high enough ($600+/wk) that I had to drive ~30 hours to break even, and the rest was profit, usually another 20 hours over the weekend.

Unless you were sharing a lease with another driver, it would've been impossible to work it as part time.

So I would see a benefit to uber over that arrangement except for uber if your car breaks you're out of luck. With a cab, i'd take it to the shop and get another one. Granted they were all pretty beat up crown vics.

The real winners were the owners of the cab company. Like you said, they held the medallions and thus most of the leverage.

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Re:Gig economy companies spent more than $200M to bankroll P... by edmundsauto on Friday November 13, 2020 @11:11AM (#25083713)

It wasn’t really profit - it was the money to pay your own wage. Now, if you took say $10 an hour out, it might be fair to say the rest is profit.

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Re:Gig economy companies spent more than $200M to bankroll P... by dwaltrip on Friday November 13, 2020 @01:45PM (#25085872)

Profit is revenue minus expenses. Employees don't do this calculation, as the employer normally pays for all work expenses. Their paycheck is pure profit -- no expenses to account for. As such, people don't really think of paychecks in these terms, so it sounds strange.

It makes sense in the comment above, as the cab driver actually has work expenses that they pay for out of pocket and are not reimbursed for.

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Re:Gig economy companies spent more than $200M to bankroll P... by wolco2 on Friday November 13, 2020 @02:06PM (#25086085)

It starts as a gross value and after taxes, ei/old age is taken out it becomes a much smaller net value.

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Re:Gig economy companies spent more than $200M to bankroll P... by solidasparagus on Friday November 13, 2020 @05:46PM (#25088469)

> So I would see a benefit to uber over that arrangement except for uber if your car breaks you're out of luck. With a cab, i'd take it to the shop and get another one

Uber drivers can rent their car by the week.

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