Also, last I knew, Uber wasn't driving around forcing people to work for their service.
The only thing exploitative here is the state and Taxi Lobby imposing conditions on the agreements you or I make with an employer.
In the end it will mean fewer jobs for prospective Uber drivers and higher costs for people taking advantage of the service.
As an occasional user of such services, I am OK with paying an increased rate if it means that the drivers are able to get unemployment.
>But these days anyone who qualifies to drive for Uber could easily find another job making the same wage or more wages.
Some people might stop riding because of the increase, which leads to some drivers going elsewhere for other jobs that you say should be easy to find. I'm not quite sure where you're going with this.
I chose to work as CEO of Amazon, but Amazon had other ideas.
The fact that you cannot choose to be the author of _War and Peace_ does not diminish the freedom you have in choosing to author non sequiturs on the internet.
People who have the ability to choose get to choose where they work. Many people do not have this freedom of choice. Otherwise people wouldn't continue to work for places that steal tips or sexually harass employees.
"Also, last I knew, Uber wasn't driving around forcing people to work for their service."
This is not, and never has been an excuse or defense. It has literally no bearing on anything.
The agreement between an employer and an employee is not "mutual" because of the massive power differential. Your premise is flawed.
But these days anyone who qualifies to drive for Uber could easily find another job making the same wage or more wages.
I take Uber a lot and not once has a driver had anything bad to say about the “gig economy”. Most are thankful to make a couple extra bucks during their free time.
Their ability to make that money is under constant attack by those who supposedly “know better” than they do about how they should be earning a living.
Playing devil's advocate here, doesn't the need to provide quality customer service come into play? I'm not arguing that you can't provide good customer service while also communicating a negative opinion about the company you're driving for, but I've got to imagine that at least a portion of drivers feel like it might be uncouth to discuss something like that and opt to not complain.
That doesn't stop other service workers in similar "gig economy" relationships from complaining (including drivers for other ride-hailing apps complaining about the app I've used to hail them).