[madengr]

IIRC when Uber & Lyft were started, it was never supposed to be a full time job, or even a taxi service. You were supposed to make some easy money by offering a ride along a route you were already taking for your normal activities.

Any job that has no barriers (difficulty, education, licensing) to entry will be eventually driven to zero profit.

[ProAm]

> it was never supposed to be a full time job

Im not sure if this is true, they offered a lot of bonuses if you completed 20 rides within a certain amount of time you get a bonus. They wanted people to drive a lot.

[spinlock]

I think that was Lyft's model but Uber was "everybody's private driver" for their first product. They were black cars with professional drivers who did do it as a full time job.

Now, "everybody's private driver" was 2x the cost of a cab (at least) so I think it was a better deal for the drivers. But, to your point, the barriers to entry were owning a black car, being licensed, and Uber vetted their drivers very carefully.

Totally different from what they're doing now.

But, I've also never met an Uber driver -- who used to be a cabbie -- that didn't think Uber was a _better_ deal than driving a cab. If you're a cab driver, you also have to rent a cab with a medalion which was an astronomical cost compared to just buying and maintaining a car.

So, I think this study comes off as disingenuous for not comparing Uber and Lyft to the traditional job of driving a cab.

[santoshalper]

That's my problem - these studies all assume that Uber and Lyft are competing against real jobs. The reality is that they are competing with jobs that are far worse and winning as a result. The Uber drivers I've talked to are glad to not being working at CVS or Burger King.

The real question is how does the richest nation in history think it is OK to pay adults a sub-living wage to do degrading menial labor so that a small number of people can be incredibly wealthy.

[bryanlarsen]

IIRC that was Lyft's positioning. Uber started out as Uber black, a black car / limousine service.

[s73v3r_]

That's what they said, but I don't think it's ever been used that way.

[foepys]

All those "shareconomy" companies try to portrait themselves as organizing platforms for the average individual to earn a few bucks on the side.

But in reality most of the services are used by other highly professionalized companies that operate outside of any traditional legislation. AirBnB is being used by companies to full-time rent apartments in attractive metro areas while avoiding hotel taxes and Uber is being used by professional drivers that don't pay the usual taxi service fees and/or taxes. Because of that both AirBnB and Uber are cheaper than the traditional hotel/taxi service and take away revenue from the businesses that adhere to the law.