Re: I’ll scweam and scweam and scweam until I’m sick!!
So, in essence, you think that to be robbed by your choice of several robbers is an advantage?
From a very basic and simple accounting point of view, the calculation that Uber, Lyft, and similar
digital robber barons make is this:
Oh, let's see, you are a student, and you wanna make a few extra bucks, here you go, and since you
already have a car anyway, we owe you exactly nothing for the wear and tear that your car goes through, nothing for the gas, nothing for the insurance, nothing for license, repairs, oil, etc.
Alrighty then, for that trip of 12 miles, we charge say $15.00, we skim 20% - that's $3 bucks of the top,
and you get $12, minus certain fees in the fine print. So you make $11 or so.
But, if you think about it, then you know that the IRS (the equivalent of the beloved Brit Inland Revenue) allows 58 cents per mile as a 'standard cost per mile'. IRS is not exactly generous.
That cost is based on long run averages. So now do the math: 58 cents times 12 miles = $6.96 is your allowable cost deduction for that 12 miles. Now $11 less $6.96 = $4.04. So, there you are, you made $4.04 for that trip. Save up the $6.96 for gas,oil, repair, license, car payments, insurance, etc.
Yes, I know, for a new car, and for just a few trips here and there, and when you have nothing else to do, a few extra dollars are nice. But in the long run, the costs for using the car for someone else's business are starting to hit the pocket book, and you wonder if it's worth it. Oh, yes, since you have a smart-phone "anyway", that cost does not need to be reimbursed to you either. There goes another
$60 to $80 per month.
To me, Uber and Lyft is a greedy as the "multi level marketing schemes", where only the big boss makes the big money, and the rest get peanuts.
Now, if there is an accident, and you are not covered by "workers comp insurance", or you are out
of work, but you are not covered by "Unemployment insurance", then the true greed of Lyft and Uber
kicks you in the butt.
Thus, they are uncivilised, meanspirited, people-abusing companies, who try to talk people into a hardly at all profitable scheme via "fancy technology" and promises.
By comparison, if you pick up a hitch-hiker, who happens to stand by the road, asking if you could
give him a ride to the next town (since you are going there anyway), then you can certainly do that out of the goodness of your heart. But it is not a business model you can use to buy rent, food, medicine, clothing, etc. It does not work, just like selling combs and diet drinks door to door does not work. It's
a barely there existence. It's desperate and sad.
So, California is doing the right thing here, and only paid-off, bribed Republican business politicos will
agree with the way of Lyft and Uber.