In the wake of Travis Kalanick’s ouster at UBER, Nikil Saval writes about the incompatibility of democratic principles with Silicon Valley’s “disrupt culture.”
“The taxi system was and is an exploitative one, in which drivers were often classified as independent contractors. But ride-sharing is incalculably more exploitative. In regulated markets, taxi companies are at least required to maintain, acquire, and insure all the cars in a taxi fleet. Ride-sharing companies are not. This means for example, as Quartz reported recently, that Uber can force its drivers into “deep subprime” loans to acquire their vehicles, leaving them drowning in debt.” Read full article here.
