Yves here. This headline hook is the lofty cost of DoorDash shares relative to delivery drivers’ meager wages, but the post goes further and documents some of the indignities that these workers suffer, like having no where to pee while on duty.
One of my friends in New York City puts the situation bluntly: “We are now a minority-majority city. We whites here to a large degree occupy a similar position to whites in South Africa before the end of apartheid. We have servants who are nearly always people of color. And the people on the top support open borders to make sure those servants stay cheap.” DoorDash type arrangements institutionalize these arrangements and perversely extend support for them into the middle class, since they can partake of occasional exploitation through apps. But the post also describes delivery workers efforts to set up their own coops. Local officials are also looking into requiring gig economy companies to be required to pay at least the minimum wage for time spent, as opposed to on a piecework basis.