[manigandham]

There is no power differential. You are free to work or leave. These laws only took that power away from the individual.

A new worker classification between contractor and employee would be a real solution, but a real solution was not the goal of this legislation.

[Broken_Hippo]

"you are free to work or leave" isn't actually true, though. It only works if no one has problems, if there is a safety net, or if you simplify the world too far.

People need to eat and have housing. Some folks have to pay child support or risk going to court. Some folks have to pay for medicine or risk dying.

You really aren't free to work or leave until we have the choice to work. An actual choice - as in, me, an able-bodied human, can decide to just stay home and make artwork (without selling). And I wish folks would stop pretending this isn't the case. So long as we have poverty and poor folks that are just-over-poverty, we have people that can be exploited.

That's where we are at, and the laws keep the exploitation from going further: Without those laws, what is to stop folks from doing such things? The market doesn't correct for it - if it did, we'd see better wages now.

A low-wage worker is basically powerless, and can be made more powerless by things like a past felony conviction or court-ordered child support and things like that.

[manigandham]

They have limited choices, yes. This doesn't change the fact that they do have a choice.

Tell me how limiting their power and opportunity further helps them exactly? What were they doing before ride-sharing and other contract work? What jobs are suddenly available for them? Wouldn't creating new opportunities be better? Wouldn't creating a new classification be better? Wouldn't creating a general health and benefits pool for everyone be better?

Yes, better situations can/should exist, and yes, this legislation is terrible and helps nobody. The opposition is that a real solution was never sought after and instead we have unintended consequences, not that things were fine before.

[chii]

> You are free to work or leave.

the underlying assumption is that these companies _still_ would want people to do work (as that is how they make profit). So by forcing these companies to take workers on at a less advantageous terms, the workers gain more.

Of course, in reality, these legislations don't have the right effects, because companies' profit motive is stronger and more creative. After all, legislators' motives are to appear good to their electorate, not actually achieve results where as companies' motives _is_ to achieve results.

[cycloptic]

Generally if it's "take it or leave it" and the other party refuses to negotiate with you then there is a power differential at play.

Whether or not it actually affects you as an individual is a different story.

[arcticbull]

> There is no power differential. You are free to work or leave.

There's no power differential, you can choose to live or die. See, easy.

[manigandham]

The real power differential is between citizens and the government. It's easy to think the government makes no mistakes when you don't experience any of the changes.

Maybe instead of feeling proud that millions have lost opportunity, it would be better to create legislation that actually does improve their lives for once.