Re:The Hidden Costs of Being an Uber Driver
by justcommenting on Wednesday February 25, 2015 @03:02AM
(#9105782)
this article points out several important aspects of uber's 'unfair advantage,' which in the labor market almost completely boils down to structural forms of tax avoidance that regulated incumbents are unable to match, but neglects to mention some of the longer-term benefits that 'real' employment brings.
for example, having a W-2 job in the united states typically means contributing to social security, which helps people build up to qualifying for certain benefits in retirement. not so with uber.
especially over a typical worker's lifetime, comments about $x/hour dramatically oversimplify and abstract away the NPV of these endeavors for employee-like participants. NPV for employee-like participants is considerably lower than many reasonable-sounding discussions would have you believe because a lot of the discounts that uber captures as profits are not as cleanly captured in $x/hr numbers....social security is one of many.
for example, having a W-2 job in the united states typically means contributing to social security, which helps people build up to qualifying for certain benefits in retirement. not so with uber.
especially over a typical worker's lifetime, comments about $x/hour dramatically oversimplify and abstract away the NPV of these endeavors for employee-like participants. NPV for employee-like participants is considerably lower than many reasonable-sounding discussions would have you believe because a lot of the discounts that uber captures as profits are not as cleanly captured in $x/hr numbers....social security is one of many.