Comment by ToucanLoucan
2 days ago
> So it's unfair to say they don't exist. Rather, it seems they're structured in an unhelpful way for those who are working double jobs, etc.
I'll be sure to alert the next person I encounter working UberEats for slave wages that the resources exist that they cannot use. I'm sure this difference will impact their lives greatly.
Edit: My point isn't that UberEats drivers make slave wages (though they do): My point is that from the POV of said people and others who need the aforementioned resources, whether they don't exist or exist and are unusable is fucking irrelevant.
Slave wages? Like the wages for a factory worker in 1918[1]? $1300 after adjusting for inflation. And that was gruelling work from dawn to dusk, being locked into a building, and nickel and dimed by factory managers. (See the triangle shirtwaist factory). The average Uber wage is $20/hour[2]. Say they use 2 gallons of gas (60 mph at 30 mpg) at $5/gallon. That comes out to $10/hour, which is not great, but they're not being locked into factories and working from dawn to dusk and being fired when sick. Can you not see that this is progress? It's not great, we have a lot of progress to make, but it sure beats starving to death in a potato famine.
[1] https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=mdp.39015022383221&se...
[2] https://www.indeed.com/cmp/Uber/salaries/Driver (select United States as location)
> Slave wages? Like the wages for a factory worker in 1918[1]? $1300 after adjusting for inflation.
I think they were using “slave wages” as a non-literal relative term to the era.
As you did.
A hundred years before your example, the “slave wages” were actually slave wages.
I think it’s fair to say a lot of gig workers, especially those with families, are having a very difficult time economically.
I expect gig jobs lower unemployment substantially, due to being convenient and easy to get, and potentially flexible with hours, but they lower average employment compensation.
> I think it’s fair to say a lot of gig workers, especially those with families, are having a very difficult time economically.
Great point. I wonder if this has to do with the current housing crisis and cost of utilities... Food has never been more affordable, in fact free with food banks and soup kitchens. But (IMHO) onerous zoning has really slowed down development and driven up prices.
Another cost is it's pretty much impossible to do anything without a smartphone and internet. I suppose libraries have free internet, but being able to get to said library is another issue.
And like you said, contract work trades flexibility for benefits, and that gets exploited by these companies.
I guess it just sucks sometimes because these issues are super hairy (shut down Uber, great, now you've just put everyone out of a job). "For every complex problem there is a solution which is clear, simple, and wrong."
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Replying to your edit: it is relevant, because it means people are trying but it isn't working. When people aren't trying, you have to get people to start trying. When people are trying but it isn't working, you have to help change the approach. Doubling down on a failing policy (e.g. we just need to create more resources) is failing to learn from the past.
At some point, you've stopped participating in good faith with the thread and are instead trying to push it towards some other topic; in your case, apparently, a moral challenge against Uber. I think we get it; can you stop supplying superficial rebuttals to every point made with "but UberEats employs [contracts] wave slaves"?