[Paul-ish]

I'm not the person you are responding to. I see where you are coming from, but I have a hard time seeing things like unionization resulting in this. I think the drivers are likely to advocate for their own interests, and would probably not try to negotiate for things that would hurt Uber so significantly that the company would go under. And if they do, wouldn't that just be the free market at work?

[peacetreefrog]

People can easily (and rationally) advocate for things that are in their own interest individually, but ultimately lead to them being worse off when everyone acts similarly. See the prisoner's dilemma.

What's "free market" and what isn't is subjective, but I don't think labor unions nec are. It's basically a cartel, but from the worker's side. If I had to describe a true free market for the gig economy, it'd be: every driver has full information about their wage, and can take it or leave it. Uber can set the wage at whatever they want, with the full understanding they won't have enough drivers if it's too low.

When you add in union or government mandated benefits I'd argue it's NOT a free market because there very well could be drivers willing to drive at some wage or rate who wouldn't be allowed to per the union or gov rules.

[Paul-ish]

> People can easily (and rationally) advocate for things that are in their own interest individually, but ultimately lead to them being worse off when everyone acts similarly. See the prisoner's dilemma.

Union bargaining is collective bargaining. It is the antithesis of what you describe. It gets everyone on-board with the same deal, rather then everyone making individual deals.

> What's "free market" and what isn't is subjective, but I don't think labor unions nec are. It's basically a cartel, but from the worker's side.

I guess in my mind, cartels are free market. The government is interfering with the free market when they break up monopolies or cartels. Unions are the government's way of saying "we don't normally allow cartels or monopolies, but this is okay because it results in a net positive on society."

> When you add in union or government mandated benefits I'd argue it's NOT a free market because there very well could be drivers willing to drive at some wage or rate who wouldn't be allowed to per the union or gov rules.

What the union negotiates is just like whatever you negotiate with your boss. Maybe someone would do your job for less, but thats not how it worked out. Thats how markets work sometimes.