IN NYC, Uber lobbyists won a battle when the City Council did not support
the mayor's cap on the number of Uber cars in the city. But I think that
this fight is continuing there.
Miriam
________________________________
From: blind-democracy-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
[mailto:blind-democracy-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of Bob Hachey
Sent: Friday, July 24, 2015 4:53 PM
To: blind-democracy@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: [blind-democracy] Uber and the Sharing Economy
Hi all,
Here's an interesting and timely editorial from the Boston Globe.
Bob Hachey
DANTE RAMOS
Uber, Airbnb become ideological flashpoints .
shutterstock; globe staff illustration
When the sharing economy first hit town, there was nothing obviously
right-wing about it. Services like Uber and Airbnb catered to people in big
cities, blue America's power base. The repurposing of underused vehicles and
apartments promised big environmental benefits. The very phrase "sharing
economy" promised less materialism and more "Sesame Street. But in recent
weeks, the debate over sharing via for-profit apps has taken on a sharply
ideological edge - one that could turn these insurgent new products into yet
another flashpoint along the usual left-right divide. In liberal San
Francisco, community activists have pushed a ballot measure limiting
short-term rentals, amid fears that users of the apartment-sharing site
Airbnb are helping to push housing prices up. In New York, Democratic mayor
Bill de Blasio, an ally of the traditional taxi industry, is in a PR war
with Uber , the leading ride-hailing company. De Blasio wants to limit the
proliferation of Uber cars in his city and is enlisting labor and
social-justice groups to the cause. " Uber is Walmart on wheels! " declared
a sign at a rally Monday. (The company has responded aggressively, altering
its app to show New York users a "de Blasio's Uber" mode featuring waits of
25 minutes or more.) Reva Seth: What working moms can teach us about the
Uber economy These street-level fights have national ramifications. In her
big economic speech last week, Hillary Clinton criticized companies that
misclassify regular workers as independent contractors - a dig at Uber, the
target of high-profile litigation on the subject. Republicans portrayed her
as a Luddite; Jeb Bush made a show of hopping into an Uber. Georgetown
political scientist Hans Noel , who studies how ideologies take shape,
predicts that supporting taxi-like regulation for Uber will end up as the
default position of the political left. That outcome wasn't foreordained. In
a parallel world, conservatives sympathetic to incumbent businesses might
defend taxi medallion owners whose investments have suddenly evaporated.
Preserving the taxi industry, with its long record of mistreating drivers
for years, isn't the most obvious liberal cause. shutterstock; globe staff
illustration Obama campaign strategist David Plouffe took a high-profile job
at Uber; in Massachusetts, former Democratic governor Deval Patrick became a
defender of ride-hailing companies. These moves showed a certain liberal
gusto for the Bay Area's latest technology, but future Democrats might liken
them instead to Franklin Roosevelt's critique of federal employee unions -
as a curiosity, an odd departure from the party's eventual course. "The
liberal-conservative divide has this strong attractive power," says Noel.
Once distinct liberal and conservative positions begin to form, he argues,
even people with somewhat divergent views gravitate toward their side's
stance. "They're going to eventually circle the wagons," Noel says, "once
they start talking to each other. But when multifaceted issues become
disputes between left and right, a lot gets lost. On obesity, Noel argues, a
complex public-health discussion has largely narrowed to how hard to lean on
corporations that sell soda and fast food. Squeezing the debates over Uber
and Airbnb into a similar framework would be a shame. The conveniences that
these services offer are genuine advances, but the dilemmas they present are
genuinely difficult: Can private actors like Uber and Airbnb be relied on to
protect public safety? When the lines between old-fashioned categories -
like "job" and "not a job" - begin to break down, what's the best way of
protecting workers? In her speech, Clinton conspicuously avoided calling
Uber out by name. Recognizing that the sharing economy isn't going anywhere,
other Democratic pols have proceeded still more carefully. While Boston
Mayor Marty Walsh, for instance, supports some regulation of ride-hailing
companies, he's hardly forcing the issue to a conclusion. Caution is never
ideologically satisfying, but for now it's only wise. Dante Ramos can be
reached at dante.ramos@xxxxxxxxx . Follow him on Twitter @danteramos .
Related: Dante Ramos: Workers, what's your online rating? Tom Keane: How to
grow the 'sharing economy Luke O'Neil: Surviving the gig economy Special
section: The Work Issue Tom Rogan: Hillary Clinton's money problem
