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Comment by AndrewKemendo | Hacker News Reader

I just ask the person how much they need/want if they are present and only give cash/venmo so it cannot be diverted to management, taxes or corporate.

Like I’ll say “what would be an amount that will solve a problem you’re worried about?”

Usually it’s just “oh whatever you think” so I just do whatever I feel in that case and move on.

Sometimes it’s zero, and sometimes its $200 to the Uber driver with pictures of his sick daughter all over his car.

If the point is to compensate the person because they are wage slave then I feel obligated to directly compensate the employee bypassing the structure they are in

Tip pools are more complicated and I generally ask how the pool is split before deciding

It’s such a scam but most people who are stuck in it don’t have many options

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> sometimes its $200 to the Uber driver with pictures of his sick daughter all over his car.

Oh man, that's what I'm doing next. Are there any sick-child-as-a-service providers or am I going to have to go source my own? Can I just use stock photos?

Would you tip more if there was a screen in the back seat playing a slideshow of the sick child with a Sarah McLachlan song in the background? How about a live chat function where you can talk to it before you tip? Maybe an achievement system for repeat customers? Fill out your punch card and you get to inject the cyclophosphamide!

What if we had the state reclassify our cabs as foster homes and put a foster kid in every front passenger seat? Do they have to be terminally ill or can we just shave them and feed them a diet of lead paint chips?

Sorry this startup idea got away from me. I'm calling it Munchausen.ai

I’m sorry you have to walk around with that level of fear, distrust and anxiety in your head that it has deteriorated your ability to differentiate.

Good luck

I didn't mean to imply your driver was scamming you, just making a joke about Changing the World™ by monetizing and soullessly destroying every social interaction, Silicon Valley style :-)

I had hoped the absurdism of a cyclophosphemide punch card or converting a taxi cab to foster home would have given it away

> Sometimes it’s zero, and sometimes its $200 to the Uber driver with pictures of his sick daughter all over his car.

If I got into an Uber like this, I would get off at the next corner and report it to the company. I want to travel in a car and not be psychologically blackmailed, I find it despicable.

Ride sharing is despicable generally, in large part because they fully crowded out (or absorbed) the independent Taxi model such that uber/lyft is an effective oligarchy

So as a function of life, if you don’t have people who will freely drive you places, and you don’t live in a place with public transport, and you can’t move, then you have no options on choices

Maybe back in 2012 there were people driving rideshare ina way that improved their lives but that number is so low at this point that getting into a rideshare is deterministically getting into someone’s car that doesn’t want to be there

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