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by datasmash 4324 days ago
The macro trend of more and more companies shifting jobs from full time to part time is disconcerting. Working one of these service jobs where you're slave to your hours like this is hell.

The "Share Economy" (Uber, TaskRabbit, etc.) has the potential to make this both better and worse. At least if you're an independent uber driver, you can choose when you're going to be available and pick up jobs when it makes sense for your schedule. There are time periods that are higher/lower demand, but you're wage is reflected in that and its your choice to make.
2 comments
dragonwriter 4324 days ago
> The "Share Economy" (Uber, TaskRabbit, etc.) has the potential to make this both better and worse.

Incidentally, while its a pleasant (for the industry) propaganda/marketing label, these things have nothing to do with sharing. They are routine sales-through-an-agent, and are no more about "sharing" than selling a house through a real estate agent is.

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aianus 4324 days ago
They're different from their traditional competitors in that they increase the utilization of one's pre-owned assets. I can use the same car for commuting as I do for moonlighting as an UberX driver, for example. That's pretty innovative, whether people like to admit it or not.
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dragonwriter 4324 days ago
> They're different from their traditional competitors in that they increase the utilization of one's pre-owned assets.

That's actually not a difference from their traditional competitors, in that (to the extent that the uses weren't actually illegal at the time) agent-intermediated rentals for already-owned assets weren't new things when these apps started doing it, and also because these apps aren't specific to "pre-owned" assets, and in fact drive asset purchases dedicated to rental through the apps. (And, in any case, rental-through-an-agent doesn't become "sharing" just because you owned the property you chose to rent out before you decided to rent it out.)

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aianus 4324 days ago
Normal people didn't rent out their bedrooms overnight before AirBnB came around and now they do. Normal people also didn't drive strangers around for money in their own cars before Lyft and UberX came along and now they do.

You can't say there's nothing new there.

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dragonwriter 4324 days ago
> Normal people didn't rent out their bedrooms overnight before AirBnB came around and now they do. Normal people also didn't drive strangers around for money in their own cars before Lyft and UberX came along and now they do.

People clearly did. I'm not sure what definition of "normal" you are trying to use here, but it seems likely circular...

> You can't say there's nothing new there.

Nor did I say that there's nothing new there. What I did say is that it has nothing to do with "sharing", each is just a new convenient web/mobile app for fairly normal agent-intermediated rentals (often with little attention to the legalities of the specific industry -- which in several cases of so-called 'sharing economy' companies is the main innovation offered over existing online agent-intermediated rental systems in otherwise similar markets.)

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datasmash 4324 days ago
I'm with you - it's a pretty BS term to describe what those category of jobs actually are, but it's also one that people use to describe the category.
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mrxd 4324 days ago
> you can choose when you're going to be available and pick up jobs when it makes sense for your schedule

Sharing economy workers are 1099 contractors, so wages can be pushed below minimum wage. You may not be able to make enough to get by just by working when its convenient for you, and have to work during the high demand/wage hours or whenever jobs are being offered.

The market for sharing economy labor will probably be where demand is more unpredictable, because businesses that can predict demand will just hire employees. Workers will have short notification windows and feel more pressure to take higher paying work when it becomes available.

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