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How Uber Profits Even When Its Drivers Aren't Earning Money (vice.com)
tedlistens writes: Jay Cassano spoke to Uber drivers about "dead miles" and what work means when your boss is an algorithm, and considers a new frontier of labor concerns and big data. "Uber is the closest thing to an employer we've ever seen in this industry," Bhairavi Desai, founder of the New York Taxi Workers Alliance, told him. "They not only direct every aspect of a driver's workday, they also profit off the entire day through data collection, not just the 'sale of a product.'"
> Ever seen a dirty Uber car? I don't even use Uber,
Solid reasoning.
Yes, but on the other side of the coin it's the old story of piecework with a race to the bottom plus deliberate criminal action even if the laws broken are unfair. It's like bringing a little bit of the third world home or digging up a 19th century robber baron.
There is nobody to cheer for in this situation. Unfair monopoly versus a new player that wants to take over the unfair monopoly and move a lot of cost onto their employees. The lie of "ride sharing" as a smokescreen is an especially blatant lie and is being used as a pretended point of difference to get around laws protecting the current local monopolies.