Each individual ride has a price/rate, and the workers of Uber can't set their own rates. Yeah, I know workers don't have a single hourly wage. Pointing that out doesn't obscure the fact that Uber and Lyft dictate completely the most important aspect of working for them. This is totally different from the idea of working as an independent contractor both in spirit and legally.
The idea of it being a "contract" isn't in dispute. It's about whether these employees can legally be classified as "INDEPENDENT contractors". They aren't independent in the normal sense of word (I'm paying particular attention to your gymnastics around how workers can't specify their rate) nor in the legal sense.
Is the intent most important here or is it who the workers actually are? The fact is that Uber and Lyft employ people in the way you typically think of (and in the way that the law thinks of). These aren't children driving around for spare cash.
Uber even has financing options to help drivers buy cars specifically for this job. What type of person buys an entire car to accomplish side hustle or to dally around? The fact that Uber accomodates such a large investment into being a driver speaks towards what their "target demographic" is.
That would actually be more in line with the law than Uber and Lyft's practices.
Currently drivers don't get to set their own prices and have to abide by other such things that don't make them independent contractors in the eyes on the law.
Drivers are allowed to be independent contractors in California. But the law requires that the drivers be truly independent in ways that Uber and Lyft do not allow.
Ummmmm, Uber and Lyft take a lot more than 1% from drivers. And Uber drivers are typically the polar opposite of bored teenagers. They are dedicated adults trying to make driving their profession.
There is a key business trick of renting the buildings in the name of smaller companies. Then if one building cannot be rented out, the small company declares bankruptcy and the rest of WeWork is unaffected/profits. I'm pretty sure this is what's going on and I don't think it should be legal.
>... by buying even vegetarian stuff from burger king you're supporting a company that financially motivates a lot of actions you find unethical...
Vegans say this all the time. You can choose to be 100% consistent with ethics but how far do you take it? Do you shut out your family and close yourself off from most of society?
You can concoct studies to show that dietary cholesterol is not correlated with serum cholesterol, but dietary cholesterol with dietary saturated fat is extremely correlated with high serum cholesterol (more so than just dietary saturated fat). Every high typical high cholesterol foods like eggs and meat are also high in saturated fat and reliably raise blood cholesterol. If you want to study elevated cholesterol in the lab you can just feed subjects eggs.
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-022-05294-9
https://www.science.org/content/article/something-seriously-...