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Comment by seibelj | Hacker News Reader

Do you do the same complex class calculation every time you interact with a cashier, talk to a receptionist, or pass a janitor? People do honest work and earn a living, no shame in that. Your life must be exhausting if you have a class-based panic attack when you hop in an Uber!

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Uber feels different for some reason. Maybe it's the lack of transparency with salary. With a regular job, you get paid x dollars an hour. That's it. You may get paid minimum wage, but at least you know it's minimum wage. With Uber, a lot of people come in with expectations of a high salary (falsely perpetuated by Uber), then end up making a whole lot less. Sometimes less than minimum wage.

Maybe it's the semi-predatory loans program. These drivers take out loans for cars, thinking they're gonna get paid a good salary, but then they make minimum wage and get locked into payments.

I can't shake the feeling that Uber is conning its drivers. And that we're culpable.

Another difference is that the cashier, receptionist, and janitor have a good chance of having an employer provided health insurance plan, and perhaps other employee benefits.

Since Uber says the drivers aren't employees, it does not provide them with any of that.

There are many business that don't do a full 40 hours so they don't have give benefits. And they demand you comply to a badly planned last minute schedule. There are also businesses where you don't know if the tips are going to the employees or to the business owner. You have no idea if your fast food server lives a 2hr commute away and does 2 or 3 '30 hr' (no benefits) jobs to tread water.

Also the benefits things is a uniquely American issue, in many other countries it is not.

In the past the exploitive bigco was walmart. Walmart is still the same, but we don't really talk about it anymore?

I mean, you're trapped in a confined space with the driver. The same is not true with cashiers, receptionists, or janitors. That is why it feels different. "This is awkward, I'm out," doesn't work at 60mph on the freeway.

Tuck and roll. Cover the head and keep your extremities pulled in. If sliding on the road, rotate as you slide to lessen roadrash, do not attempt to run. If in anything thicker than wet grass, roll. Protect your neck and spine the best you can, rolling from shoulder to hip, diagnally. Leather is your friends here, even thick jeans will qickly rip above 35.

-has 'this is akward im out'ed on a motorcycle at 60ish a few times. Only recommended for the worst of conversationlists.

awful comparison because the chance is pretty high that these people have health insurance and are regularly employed.

When it comes to companies that try to avoid the social obligations that employers in my country traditionally have or that try to win by monopolizing markets then yes I make the decision to not use them. This includes Uber, Amazon and a few others.

Very well put. lol

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