The gig economy isn't the future of work after all. In fact, it might not have a future at all. https://www.ft.com/content/11e2e1bf-c1dd-47cc-81b2-2147433ff16d?segmentid=acee4131-99c2-09d3-a635-873e61754ec6
Uber and Lyft say they'll have to raise prices by 20% to 120% in California if forced to treat drivers as employees. That's an indication of how much money they've been saving by ignoring the laws that apply to everyone else...
...but even with that labour cost compression, they're still loss-making, and the bigger they get the more money they lose. Their business model is to sell services for far less than their actual value. No wonder customers love them
What's the bull case for Uber? 1) eventually drive out all competition, attain monopoly & raise prices (umm but that's anti-trust law might have something to say about that)
2) Invent self-driving cars & replace all drivers. (umm but Uber's really not doing well in that race & would never have a monopoly on the technology) https://www.theverge.com/2019/11/6/20951385/uber-self-driving-crash-death-reason-ntsb-dcouments)