[atonse]

For most of us that read this site, we are lucky that the minimum wage debate is largely an intellectual exercise. We can throw economic and free market theory into the debate until the cows come home. But to me, this is a bigger issue of what is the base standard of living we want for members of our society. I don't think it's crazy to ask businesses to pay their employees a fair wage in this age of historic profits. And as we've seen time and again, raising the minimum wage to something like $15 has had no negative economic impact (like in Seattle).

And even with the very low rates that Uber pays its drivers, they're still rushing to build an automated fleet. So this argument that a minimum wage will make these jobs go away, just doesn't hold water, because those motivations are _already_ there, and the trend is _already_ going in that direction.

You're also right that Uber isn't a sweatshop, nor is anyone being forced to drive for them. But to throw your hands up and just say "oh well, it's just how it happened, that's just how the market is", as if this wasn't a carefully planned way for Uber to skirt employment and labor laws, and ignore all the malice and greed involved, simply doesn't faithfully represent the actual situation.

By the way, I say all this knowing that my consumer behavior is hypocritical: I use Lyft every now and then, and I still shop at Amazon.