
Some Uber drivers make so little, they have to live in their cars - palidanx
http://curious.kcrw.com/2017/07/driving-for-uber-living-in-your-car
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zeroxfe
What I don't understand is why the free market doesn't correct for this. If
Uber drivers make less than what they need, they'd stop driving for Uber,
causing some kind of price correction, no?

(BTW, I'm no fan of Uber, but I don't understand how Uber is to blame here.)

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bmh_ca
Uber is clearly the best option these people believe they have.

Knowledge is not perfect, and efficiency is not instant.

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zeroxfe
Yes, I agree, and I see that these cases are clearly outliers -- nevertheless,
it doesn't seem reasonable to blame Uber for this.

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bmh_ca
I agree that this is not Uber's fault. I was only tackling the "why the free
market doesn't correct" aspect.

On that point: The free market is not obligated to correct for the lack of
demand for humans.

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dkonofalski
This is sensationalist nonsense and should be voted down immediately. No one
is forcing these people to keep their jobs for Uber and them having to live in
their cars has nothing to do with Uber. It has to do with them not making a
sustainable income living in one of the most expensive parts of the United
States. Take your car, drive is somewhere cheaper and look for a job in an
area you can afford to live. Don't shift the blame to Uber.

~~~
microwavecamera
Uber was misleading drivers with deceptive advertising regarding how much
drivers would make. How _couldn 't_ you blame Uber?

[http://money.cnn.com/2017/01/19/technology/uber-settles-
driv...](http://money.cnn.com/2017/01/19/technology/uber-settles-driver-
lawsuit/index.html)

[https://www.forbes.com/sites/janetwburns/2017/01/23/uber-
mus...](https://www.forbes.com/sites/janetwburns/2017/01/23/uber-must-
pay-20m-for-luring-drivers-with-inflated-wage-stats/#6bf20dbf191d)

~~~
dkonofalski
...because no one is forcing these people to continue working for Uber? This
article makes it seem like these people have to live in their cars because
they're somehow bound to Uber. If they can't get another job, then Uber is
income that they wouldn't otherwise have. I don't see how that's Uber's fault.

~~~
microwavecamera
So it's alright that companies lie and it's the employees fault for not
knowing they were being lied too? Brilliant. Another thought, if Uber wasn't
completely incompetent in managing it's finances and didn't hemorrhage money
like a rich cocaine addict in Bolivia, they could probably afford to pay fair
wages.

~~~
dkonofalski
Umm... they are not Uber employees. They're Uber contractors. I'm not saying
that Uber is a saintly company with only good intentions. I'm saying that it's
misguided and silly to blame Uber for the fact that this person has to live in
his car. Without Uber, he would be getting no income whatsoever and would be
living in his car anyways. At the very least, he could drive to another city
while Ubering and picking up fares and improve his situation. Blaming Uber is
not only wrong but doesn't actually fix his situation _at all_.

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microwavecamera
Lets exploit the poor. Awesome.

~~~
dkonofalski
What? So we should blame Uber because some of its contractors are poor? What
are you even on about?

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microwavecamera
What am I on about? The new era of the robber barons and how it hurts our
entire industry as a whole. I've been in the tech industry for 20 years now
and the Ubers of the world make all of us look bad. We shouldn't reward bad
behavior or the Machiavellian idea that the end justifies the means. Uber will
fail and the new tech bubble will burst. They've proven time and time again
that they're incompetent and so far have squandered billions in investments.
This will scare investors away from the tech industry just as it happened in
the early 2000s. It took years for our industry to recover and here we are
again repeating history. Those who do not learn from history are doomed to
repeat it.

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undersuit
I gotta say that maybe part of the problem is the two guys they mentioned with
car payments are paying more in a month than I pay for my rent in Montana.

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petraeus
Anyone driving for Uber is really dumb, these people simply take the cake.

