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'We're Just Rentals': Uber Drivers Ask Where They Fit In a Self-Driving Future (theguardian.com)
Bloomberg reported on Thursday about Uber's plan to bring its first fleet of self-driving cars to Pittsburgh as soon as this month, a move that has since been confirmed by the cab-hailing company. Amid the announcement, Uber drivers are disappointed at Uber, wondering what the future of the company lies for them. The Guardian reports:"Wo-o-o-o-w," 60-year old Uber driver Cynthia Ingram said. "We all knew it was coming. I just didn't expect it this soon." For Ingram, autonomous Ubers are an unwelcome threat to her livelihood. "I kind of figured it would be a couple more years down the line before it was really implemented and I'll be retired by then," she said. A paralegal with 30 years experience, Ingram began driving for Uber and Lyft in June 2015 when she lost her job. She said that she loves driving for Uber, though she has struggled to make ends meet. Rob Judge, 41, was also concerned with the announcement. "It feels like we're just rentals. We're kind of like placeholders until the technology comes out." A longtime customer service representative, Judge began driving for Uber three months ago to make money while he looks for other work. "For me personally, this isn't a long term stop," he added. "But for a lot of other people that I've connected with, this is their only means."
Automating every last job is the correct path to a future where nobody has to work and we can just exist as humans, bettering ourselves. Ideal society if you ask me. Working for masters is overrated.
I didn't exactly hear a lot of tears being shed by Uber drivers over the cab drivers being put out of work.
The world's burning. Moped Jesus spotted on I50. Details at 11.
Why is this a bad thing? Believe it or not, there's plenty of other work out there. Uber was just the natural choice of many who already had a car and knew how to drive, but as one of people from TFA noted, it's not a good way to make a living.
So what exactly IS a good way to make a living if you're a 60+ paralegal who lost her job just before retirement? You're too old to get hired someplace new most likely, and you're too young to start drawing on Social Security. So tell me, what is your advice for someone like that? Go back to school? Get a job as a greeter at Walmart?
The obvious answer to all of this is that we need a Universal Basic Income.
That "union mandate" you refer to has a name. It's called a "contract". You may not like it, but those were the terms the company management agreed to and signed their names to.
Van Halen famously wrote riders into all their contracts (theirs that word again, "contract") that said the brown M&M's were to be removed from the candy bowl before their shows. Your mortgage with your bank is a contract that says you have to pay your bank several times what your property is worth. The contract most people have with their company says that if they get sick they're allowed to stay home and get better and still get paid. Do you know why most employment contracts say that? Because unions fought (and died) for that right. Do you know why you occasionally get to take a Saturday and Sunday off of work? Why you occasionally get a little vacation? Guess.
Unions have all sorts of things in the contracts they have with companies. And the companies signed all those contracts making it so. If that unionized company you do business with doesn't do a job that you like, find another company and stop whining.
You are welcome on my lawn.
If you're only saving money all your life, then you're not spending money on enriching your kids and your family. This is a bad thing.
Laws are rules for the court, but merely a bottom bar to hit for life. Think beyond laws in your actions always.