What is also less discussed is that (unlike many other tech platforms) Uber/Lyft facilitates wealth transfer in local economies (to some extent) due to how locally it operates.
Uber has claimed that more than 80% of all the fares ever collected has directly gone to drivers. By creating massive demand mostly in the well-off parts of a city, it opens up a channel for one-to-one wealth transfer to the predominantly less well-off drivers.
This is quite different from other platforms that suck up money from local economies and then disburse most of them to the elite few, or park the cash in some offshore accounts.
I think there's a nuance here that is often lost in this kind of discussion about inequality.
Uber has claimed that more than 80% of all the fares ever collected has directly gone to drivers. By creating massive demand mostly in the well-off parts of a city, it opens up a channel for one-to-one wealth transfer to the predominantly less well-off drivers.
This is quite different from other platforms that suck up money from local economies and then disburse most of them to the elite few, or park the cash in some offshore accounts.
I think there's a nuance here that is often lost in this kind of discussion about inequality.