Never use Uber, Lyft, Doordash, Uber Eats, AirBnB etc. No exception irregardless how easy or cheap it may be. It's a small sacrifice but can and will make a difference.
Using these services to me is like asking a waiter to pay for part of my meal. When it comes around to paying the bill are you able to face someone and ask them to pay for part of what they just served you knowing that they are barely making a living?
- incumbent taxis are also predatory services that abuse drivers, arguably worse than Uber/Lyft - and they're a shitty rider experience in many many ways.
- hotels are OK but rarely provide kitchens, let alone friendly hosts who bake you killer banana bread (yesterday's stay)
- delivery from individual restaurants is rarely available at all, and thus you're going to call a Postmates/etc to help pickup. Delivery is all-but-required when feeding a large group, e.g. work function.
I'm sure it's usually pretty easy to convince oneself that others won't give up the comforts so nothing will change and just continue using the services.
Great, but is taking away bad jobs really the best way to do that?
You can thank the likes of Uber Eats, Deliveroo, etc. A lot of restaurants would've otherwise had their own service, and some actually replaced their own service with these companies.
Everyone that stayed over would become friends or friendly and we'd provide anything they requested.
The problem is the trash hotel nearby doesn't like competition and reported us to the city.
Airbnb corrupted that by incentivizing a business model where investor groups buy up entire properties solely for Airbnb use. That's very different from what you're describing. They're acting as full-scale hoteliers, but evading hotel regulations and zoning laws by setting up shop in residential neighborhoods. And of course, reducing the overall housing supply for all the people who actually live in that area.
My gut non-PhD economist feeling is that AirBnb has very few people from the bottom 2 quartiles participating in it in the first place. It's wealthy land owners offering short term rentals to people with substantial disposable incomes.
Cash and capital poor people are largely excluded (priced out) from the platform altogether, whereas on DoorDash and Uber/Lyft they comprise the vast majority of the service providers.
The latter part is the worst. It's one thing to be a dick but at least if you are then own up to it and be a dick to everyone equally. But this is literally the worst, as it explicitly aims to exploit the most vulnerable (who may not have a huge social media presence or a contact within the press) while attempting to keep a good public image (given the company is still around I guess that's working).
When I need delivery, I'll check to see if they offer it in-house. For pizza places I know they hire their own delivery staff, so I make sure to tip well.
Secondly, you have the option of giving a nice tip. I suspect they'd prefer that over not renting their Airbnb or whatever service they're offering.
DoorDash is litterally taking the tips left for the staff though ...
Give cash instead as long as this is the case.
Ride hailing is regulated, in part, to ensure that people aren't being taken advantage of. It's also regulated to make sure that taxes and fees are being properly collected.
Taxis and private bus services weren't always regulated, but they became regulated because they took advantage of their customers. Similarly, regulations are placed on ride hailing to that passengers get what they paid for and there is at least some accountability.
If you live in the US, you have to give up a lot of services if you don't want to buy from people who are underpaid..
Does this mean something completely different in the US compared to the rest of the world? How is anyone in this business being underpaid?!
Relocation agents (employed or freelancing) can easily bill $1000/day over here so I was a bit confused.
She was freelancing and looking forward to Obamacare -- having not had healthcare in 15 years.
I took note of that, because to me not having health insurance seemed completely unreasonable. I almost left the continent when HR tried to convince me I should trust "retroactive" insurance -- and I would get the policy after 30 days, lol.. maybe in just paranoid :)
I have to assume any VC taking part in a business that needs additional human labor to scale and hence has significant marginal costs is simply betting on being able to dump the company in the public markets.