Some Uber drivers make so little, they have to live in their cars | Hacker News Reader

Some Uber drivers make so little, they have to live in their cars

curious.kcrw.com

10 pointspalidanx25 comments

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.)

Uber isn't the one to blame here. The whole story is ridiculous.

Why do you think the "free market" would correct for "what they need"? The free market doesn't care about what anyone needs.

the market isn't free. Uber and Lyft are basically the only game in town for below minimum wage.

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

Knowledge is not perfect, and efficiency is not instant.

because there is very little wage competition below minimum wage.

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

They're exploiting loopholes(and that's a generous stretch) in employment laws.

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.

The argument they're making is at one point the drivers were making more money and could afford to buy a new vehicle or whatever. Then because of fare reductions and therefore reductions in pay they're now saddled with debt and can't afford housing.

that sounds like 80% of the population, not only Uber drivers

Uber doesn't offer a job, they are considered a contactors. As a contractor you can't collect unemployment, you don't get minimum wage and you're responsible for collecting your own taxes. It's not much different than MLM schemes they offer the world, but in the end most false promises.

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.

Hoo boy, this touched a nerve.

How would you stop working for Uber if you couldn't get other jobs? How would you move house if you had no money to do so?

The insinuation is that this person has to live in their car because of Uber. If you can't get another job, isn't Uber helping you by giving you some kind of income instead of the other possibility which is 0 income?

As for the 2nd question, if your house is your car then shouldn't that be easy? You have money to drive other people around, why wouldn't you have money to drive yourself somewhere?

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...

https://www.forbes.com/sites/janetwburns/2017/01/23/uber-mus...

...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.

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.

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.

Lets exploit the poor. Awesome.

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

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.

>So it's alright that companies lie and it's the employees fault for not knowing they were being lied too

Strawman argument

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.

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

Reply on news.ycombinator.com