Time to divest from Uber
Fish rots from the head first. — Russian expression
Why is anyone surprised at the sexual harassment of Susan Fowler or the lack of action by Uber? After all, this is a company whose very business model is based upon exploitation, serfs working for an app, the serfs work for less than minimum wage, provide the capital, bear all the risks and Uber creams off the profit for doing nothing. And now the smears have begun.
Uber is to take us back to the Middle Ages of serfs with few rights working for a feudal landlord.
And it is not only Uber, they are the ones with the highest profile. We have Deliveroo, Wheelys, and many others operating on the serfs working for an app business model, exploitation of desperate workers.
Me thinks Mitch & Freada Kapor protesth too much.
Did they protest following the numerous cases of sexual assault of female passengers by Uber drivers?
And why are they even investing in a company whose business model is based upon exploitation?
Is it not more a case of worried about the impact upon their investment?
What they seem to be afraid of is that Uber has become so toxic, the bubble is about to burst and even the Vulture Capitalists will be scared away, no longer able to make money out of doing nothing.
Shame too on Eric Holder and Arianna Huffington for their association with Uber.
And for supporters who claim Uber is technological innovation and the traditional taxi drivers who complain are Luddites are plain wrong.
The reason Uber is able to undercut, is because unlike the regular taxi driver, they are not regulated and are not bearing the cost of regulation.
Nor should we only be concerned with aggressive competition to put rivals out of business. There are pollution issues and the toll it takes on public transport networks.
In UK they dodge VAT by claiming the drivers are self-employed.
Nor should we forget that Uber fell over backwards to support Donald Trump. It was only when #deleteUber turned into a torrent following the Muslim Ban and crude attempt by Uber to use it to increase market share, that Uber attempted to dissociate from Trump. Too little, too late.
Susan Kalder is not the only nail in the Uber coffin. Google through their parent company Alphabet are suing Uber and its associated company Otto for theft of their self-driving technology.
In UK a claim for non-payment of VAT.
Uber is a hyped bubble waiting to burst.
We are seeing a campaign Delete Uber, is it now not time for a divest from Uber as we are seeing with oil companies before the Uber bubble bursts?
There is a lot we can all do:
- Support #deleteUber and do not then use Lyft as they are no better than Uber.
- Divest from Uber.
- Ask that your city regulator regulates Uber as a taxi operator.
- Demand that taxes are paid.
- Uber drivers to be paid a Living Wage.
- Support local taxi companies and driver cooperatives.
And Mitch & Freada Kapor put your money where your mouth is and divest from Uber.
Welcome to the post-capitalist world.
A world of serfs working for apps, atomised workers bidding against each other to drive down wages, of bullshit jobs, of mindless, soul destroying, temporary, zero hours, part time McShit jobs.
Or we can have open coops, collaborative commons, a sharing economy.
