Friday, July 10, 2015

Mine your own business model

Uber answers the kibitzers;
Uber drivers prefer the flexibility of being independent contractors, Uber said in a sharply worded response to a lawsuit from drivers seeking reclassification as employees.
The San Francisco company on Thursday filed a ream of rebuttals, including declarations from 400 drivers, in U.S. District Court. It seeks to squelch class-action certification for the case, O’Connor et al vs. Uber.
Not since David v. Goliath...
The issue of independent contractor versus employee status has exploded in recent months, spurring national debate and a raft of lawsuits against Uber, Lyft, Postmates, Handy, Homejoy and other providers of on-demand services. These tech startups all rely on workers who set their own hours, and say the business model benefits both the companies and the workers. But critics argue that the rise of independent contractors is creating a new class of workers who lack basic social safety nets.
And don't kowtow to the establishment that relies on the servility of those who are so covered. As Thomas Sowell said, in the last two sentences of his magnum opus, Knowledge and Decisions;
Freedom is not simply the right of intellectuals to circulate their merchandise. It is, above all, the right of ordinary people to find elbow room for themselves and a refuge  from the rampaging presumptions of their "betters".

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