If the Shoe Fits: When “Caveat Emptor” Becomes “Operarius Emptor”
by Miki SaxonA Friday series exploring Startups and the people who make them go. Read all If the Shoe Fits posts here
The so-called 1099 economy, where your workers aren’t actually employees, brings up questions.
- Is worker welfare a valid consideration in terms of the bottom line?
- How fair is it to reduce compensation, but maintain publicly that earning power is the same?
- How ethical is it to encourage workers to take on substantial debt based on those unlikely earnings?
If you answered 1) not really, 2) fine, 3) no problem then you’re in line with Uber management.
…reliably ruthless Uber is in the thick of it. Two “partners” in Uber’s vehicle financing program are under federal investigation, but Uber hasn’t slowed its aggressive marketing campaign to get drivers with bad credit to sign up for loans.
Following in the footprints of the mortgage brokers who sold houses to people who couldn’t afford them, thus creating the subprime housing mess, Uber is aggressively pushing new cars and subprime auto loans to its drivers with bad/no credit.
One comment stood out for its clarity and applicability to Uber and the rest of the 1099 world.
Uber corporate gets venture capital and stock options. Uber drivers get subprime loans. Sound like pretty standard American-style capitalism. –buonragazzo
Sound familiar?
Image credit: HikingArtist