Something I don't think people really think about in the Uber equation. Driving also has a massively higher risk of dying than sitting on the couch, so it's part loan part Russian roulette.
When it comes to finances, people have a shockingly hard time figuring out the true cost of things. I've seen this a lot with things such as driving and income taxes. As he mentions, this informational asymmetry works to Uber/Lyft's advantage, so I doubt we will see any changes from them.
In my experience the confusion surrounds 2 things. How brackets and deductions work. Many people don't understand that once your income goes into a higher bracket, you are only taxed at that higher bracket for the income that pushes you into it. For deductions, I've met a lot of people who think that it works essentially as a credit, rather than just saving you your tax rate on that portion.
It's wording like that that's confusing. Once your income goes into a higher bracket, you are only taxed at that higher bracket for the income _that falls within that new bracket._ The income that _pushed_ you into that bracket is taxed the same way.
(and AGI does affect deduction phase-outs so there's that complication...)
I think that feeling can probably be split by the fear of being late, fear of being in a bender fender and the general unpleasantness of navigating traffic - so as a professional driver you don't care about lateness and can take a small insurance to reduce the mental stress of being in a fender bender.
won't solve everything, but maybe it can bring the stress down enough to be manageable as a career.
It's not just traffic, Taxi drivers have double the risk of being murdered as cops, without any of the benefits. http://www.syracuse.com/opinion/index.ssf/2015/01/by_the_num...