No, I don’t think they are stupid. I think they do not have all the information. And uber and lyft sure aren’t going to give them a worksheet showing them how to calculate the operating costs for the car and help them figure out their net income.

So you’re saying that they are too stupid to know what’s best for them? That’s quite insulting (especially since I have a relative and close friend who drive for both Uber and Lyft).

Right. Because suddenly, the total cost of operation is being factored into the price. As it is now, the drivers absorb a lot of the costs and might even be losing money on the deal. If you entire business model depends on exploiting people who are bad at math, maybe you need to re-think your operations.

The questions should be, “Would you like health insurance? Would you like Uber to provide the extra car insurance you need? Would you like Lyft to pay part of the social security taxes you are required to pay? Would you rather not go through the hassle of figuring out self-employment taxes? Would you like the business that is profiting from your labor to pay the entire actual cost of what you provide, which includes a car into which you have invested capital and pay for gas and maintenance?”

A lot of the people who drive for lyft and uber are very bad at math and don’t understand how much it actually costs them to operate their cars.

Flexibility is one thing. Hiring, firing, liability, insurance, and the like are a whole other ballgame. Under a gig economy it’s pretty easy to get hired–it’s between you and the customer, with the company acting as a mediator. It’s much harder to get hired by a company directly. Same with insurance–if I’m on company business I’m insured by the company for various things, and therefore have to comply with various rules. If I’m a contractor those are often my responsibility (often with a QC manager making sure I meet the requirements).

The gig economy thrives on a degree of flexibility that an employee paradigm simply will not allow.

There’s a fundamental issue with the Ubers and Lyfts of the world that has yet to be resolved, regardless of the wording of current law and proposed legislation: Pay. In a true Independent Contractor relationship, the person is free to negotiate his/her own rates/pay just like you do.

But that’s not really true for the App based folks who are told, this is what we pay, you cannot negotiate it, and hopefully you get some tips. I hope the labor costs for these companies increase and that money is passed on to the employees. They get paid like crap and are dependent on me tipping them. That’s not fair to anybody.