MIT published a report saying that a study had revealed that the vast majority of Uber and Lyft drivers make net earnings of less than minimum wage, and that fully a third of them are actually losing money by driving in this "sharing economy" business. That's not the stunning part; hardly surprises me, in fact.
What's stunning is that it took an MIT study to bring it to public attention. If our schools were graduating people with real educations, this "sharing economy" nonsense would never have gotten off of the ground, because the basic economics of income and costs is dead simple and the drivers would have realized within a month of starting the work that driving your own car for someone else's profit is a losing proposition.
Also stunning is that Uber responded to the report by saying that MIT's study protocol was "deeply flawed." Of course it was.
Never mind these drivers that rent or lease a car and try to make payments on it and try to make a living. Good Luck with that.
ReplyDeleteI always viewed Uber/Lyft as a way to pick up a few bucks in your spare time if you happened to be going the same way as a passenger is. That's it. I've done the driving gig before with companies and their cars and never made a lot of money at it.