So-called ‘ridesharing’
Drivers
Fig. 1. Yeah, this is me. The sign says, “If you’re whining about a labor shortage, STOP ignoring my job applications!” And the QR-code leads here. Photograph by author, January 16, 2023.
I just got my 2022 tax forms from Uber. They admit to taking around 43 percent cut of my gross receipts in November and December 2022 and just under 39 percent for the entire year. I’m not an accountant and I don’t know what other fuckery might account for the difference between these numbers and the 60 percent I believe they’re taking, based on what passengers are telling me, versus what Uber is paying me.
Supposedly, I grossed over $100,000 last year. It definitely doesn’t feel like it; indeed, while my tax preparer will have the final word, it looks like my net out of that was a little over $23,000.
Work
Fig. 2. The spectre of Death, in the form of a large skeleton, rises with the smoke and flames of the burning Asch Building during the Triangle fire, as people jump and fall to their death. Artist unknown, from International Ladies Garment Workers Union Photographs (1885-1985) at The Kheel Center for Labor-Management Documentation and Archives, via Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 2.0.
And, sure enough, they’re still whining about a “labor shortage.”[1] When do I get to start shooting these assholes?
Justin Lahart, “Don’t Blame Covid for the Worker Shortage,” Wall Street Journal, January 27, 2023, https://www.wsj.com/articles/labor-participation-factors-economy-11674780877
- [1]Justin Lahart, “Don’t Blame Covid for the Worker Shortage,” Wall Street Journal, January 27, 2023, https://www.wsj.com/articles/labor-participation-factors-economy-11674780877↩