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Comment by denimnerd42 | Hacker News Reader

A minimum wage job is not that hard to get if you own a car so I'm curious how long these people are working at less than minimum wage before they find another opportunity. Maybe these people are only working a few hours a week to make a few extra bucks?

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I think it's as simple as them not doing the math. Self employment taxes, gas, vehicle wear, etc. They just see the check is bigger than what their prior minimum wage job was. Probably true for Uber, Lyft, etc, also.

And, to be fair, it's more flexible, as you say. I suspect some drag their kids along, or work for Instacart after their day job (or other obligations) is done, etc.

It's not even necessarily the case of not doing the math. Assuming the check is bigger, it's not even wholly irrational for those short of cash for immediate obligations to take the bigger check today and kick future costs around car maintenance down the road.

I've kicked expenses down the road more times than I care to admit.

Sometimes it’s the only debt that’s accessible to someone (borrowing from their future self).

As are all the "sharing economy" scams out there. They all hide the costs in the math and pass them on to their employees. Uber, airbnb, etc.

They aren't scams. They are just opportunities of low compensation. A scam is where someone is robbing you blind because they lie to you. A crappy "job" doesn't have to be a scam to be crappy.

Many of these "gig economy" companies have grossly misrepresented the earning potential[1]. That bit is scammy. As is stealing tips, which Instacart was caught doing.

[1] One example: https://www.recode.net/2017/1/19/14330042/uber-20-million-se...

They lie in the sense that they take advantage of the fact that some people do not have the education or intelligence to think about things like asset depreciation, making them absorb these costs without being fully aware of the implications.

Pass them on to their employees, and also society as a whole.

Socializing the costs, privatizing the profits.

People aren’t that stupid, they just don’t want to work for a boss or have to be somewhere on time and deal with customers and whatnot, at least with the meager additional wages they would get.

Actually, because of Instacart and uber and amazon delivery, those retail/hotel/restaurants have to offer decent wages to attract people that are actually willing to do the work.

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