It certainly would be a tragedy for all of the drivers who lost work and may struggle to feed their families. Many of the drivers are immigrant men who have few other prospects for work.
If delivery driving is going to be socialized as a jobs program, is it the ideal jobs program? I think not.
There must be unprofitable business activities that would make better jobs programs. Student stipends, vocational training, teachers aides for natives learning foreign languages, subsidized English language lessons, almost anything would be a better investment for immigrant men than subsidization of unprofitable delivery services. Arguably just handing out money and skipping the unprofitable business activity would cause less damage and waste to the environment.
And maybe that's a societal problem we should be addressing instead of expecting people to give money to silicon valley companies.
Don't get me wrong. I've used and use these services at times. I'm not morally opposed to them. I just think that saying that telling someone by not using them they're hurting immigrants is just a whole lot of backwards.
telling someone by not using them they're hurting immigrants is just a whole lot of backwards
Backwards? What's backwards about wanting to inform people of all the consequences to their actions? Life is messy and complicated. Far too often people don't want to think about all the consequences to their actions so they can erase that complexity.
As an aside, not all of these companies are Silicon Valley-based anyway. SkipTheDishes, the one I use, is a Canadian company.
You can say the same thing for every food truck or small restaurant you've ever passed. The simple act of ordering food from one place instead of another risks putting the other out of business and that family out on the streets.
At some point we need to fix societal issues instead of worrying that not consuming goods or services is harmful.
I'm not saying "don't fix societal issues." Some people lean on the "fix societal issues" line to the exclusion of all else though. They let the perfect be the enemy of the good.
There must be unprofitable business activities that would make better jobs programs. Student stipends, vocational training, teachers aides for natives learning foreign languages, subsidized English language lessons, almost anything would be a better investment for immigrant men than subsidization of unprofitable delivery services. Arguably just handing out money and skipping the unprofitable business activity would cause less damage and waste to the environment.