Labour getting ever-granular in the age of micro-loans and RentAHuman.

> "Dashers have a new way to earn on their own terms"

The classic meaning inversion of precariousness and lack of benefits as a virtue.

CSMastermind 3 hours ago | parent | next [-]

It's also unlocking economic value that was impossible to realize in the old model. If you're sitting around your house with nothing to do for an hour you can now earn money in ways you couldn't before.

	▲	RugnirViking an hour ago \| parent \| next [-]
		A laughable concept; absurd on its face. Just like the idea that uber is just suburban mums taking one or two trips on the way back from school. It will absolutely be a full time, below minimum wage job that desperate people do. The same as uber, delivery drivers, and the entire rest of the gig economy
	▲	ChromaticPanic 2 hours ago \| parent \| prev \| next [-]
		"Earn money" most markets are so saturated with drivers, nobody is making above minimum wage.
	▲	spicyusername 3 hours ago \| parent \| prev [-]
		"value"

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vovavili 3 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

Neither of these two things are something that DoorDash as a company can realistically do anything about.

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matthewdgreen 3 hours ago | parent | next [-]

DoorDash lobbies heavily against laws that would regulate labor, or classify its workers as “employees” and thus require they be covered by the minimal protections our country offers.

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cortesoft 2 hours ago | parent | next [-]

The question is what happens if these sorts of micro-contract work arrangements are outlawed... is the expectation that these businesses will instead hire these people full time, thus increasing full time employment?

Maybe, although it seems unlikely. These sorts of tasks aren't going to be worth most companies hiring someone to do it full time. Instead, the work simply won't be done and the business will just be a little less efficient and responsive.

The other alternative is that someone would start a specialized service providing each of these types of tasks, and hire full time workers to do the work, and then contract out the services directly.

Is that better for the workers? Maybe for some, they will have full time employment. But will they make more money? Maybe, but now there is a new company extracting profit, with overhead and all the related costs.

Is that a better world for the average person? I don't know. I just don't think the answer is as simple as saying DoorDash obviously makes it worse.

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nradov 2 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

A lot of that is about medical insurance. Employers generally have to offer subsidized health plans to full-time employees. If we could break that policy linkage between employment and health plan coverage then it would reduce the importance of classifying workers as employees versus independent contractors.

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reddozen 3 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

If the politicians are bought out by evil DoorDash's lobbying, why don't the voters just vote the politicians out? Do you have any evidence of a politician voting against their constituents' interests for personal gain?

	▲	brianwawok 3 hours ago \| parent \| next [-]
		Ignoring the easy second line, the answer to the first line is: we have two political parties in the US. What if neither are doing what the voters want?
	▲	CPLX 2 hours ago \| parent \| prev \| next [-]
		> Do you have any evidence of a politician voting against their constituents' interests for personal gain? You have to be kidding. In the current US political system, the hard part would be finding examples of a politician doing anything but.
	▲	2 hours ago \| parent \| prev [-]
		[deleted]

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xienze 3 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

To be fair, it’s not really their fault that there are people who want to treat work that normally would be considered a way to pick up a few bucks during free time as a full time career.

Sure, go ahead and make fast food delivery a highly regulated line of work that pays $30/hour with benefits. Just don’t be surprised when it no longer becomes economically viable for DoorDash to continue operating.

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loa_in_ 3 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

In a certain Euroland country an analogous delivery company just awards the driver minimum hourly payment on certain agreed before hours if they're clearly working but circumstances had them earn less. Minimum wage requirements stifle nothing.

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jrjeksjd8d 3 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

If only there was some other kind of employment model where people had regular shifts and they were paid consistently and transparently. Unfortunately I also do my office work by logging into an app at 6AM every day and bidding on a white collar job for a mystery amount of time and money

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vovavili 3 hours ago | parent [-]

I am pretty sure that DoorDash employs quite a few of people for their tasks at hand.

	▲	DonaldPShimoda 3 hours ago \| parent [-]
		Notably not the people who actually make the company money, though.