Uber Urbanization: Part II
By Betsy Bonilla
Let's start off
with why Uber works. Like many other businesses and industries Storper and
Walker point out that many companies look for a labor force that is ‘cheap and
compliant’. We see it all the time with companies and factories closing and
leaving to areas where the government requires less of them and where there is
less regulation, less union’s and where people are willing to work for a small
fraction of what they rightfully deserve. Factories migrating to the Sunbelt
and companies going overseas is a major factor of why there is such a high
unemployment rate in the United States and in urban areas. So with a large
number of people in need of work, a company that gives a lot of people the
‘tools’ needed to, in a sense, be their own boss by just applying online was
what lured many people in. They are most likely to put up with more issues then
someone who does not desperately need the income. Also when you are told you
can work when and for however long you would like it seems like a great fit for
our very busy lives. (Gottdiener, Ryan, & Hutchison, 2015)
Riding Dirty: How Uber Takes Drivers and Passengers for a Ride | Nailed It!
Unfortunately,
this job opportunity does not fit all of the people in need of work and does
not service all of the people it claims too. First, even with the lack of
enforcement of the few requirements that they have like background checks (that
some seem to squeeze on by anyway) and the need to have and use a newer car
(how many people actually get there car verified?) they are still not guaranteed
to be able to keep this job. Since everything is done by using an App it is
also based on ratings. Both for the driver and for the passenger. So if someone
does not like you for whatever reason like race and ethnicity, attitude,
driving skills, the way you talk or look, where they picked you up like your
home and neighborhood or just because they are in a bad mood. That will reflect
on your rating, making it harder for you to get a ride and/or it will cause you
to lose your job. Therefore, the same lack of regulations that has allowed this
company to flourish is the same reason why job security is out the window.
They have managed to
bypass all of the laws and policies in place for people who drive Taxies and
Taxi companies by asserting that people who use Uber are not employees and that
they are not responsible for them in anyway because they are ‘self-employed’. Yet
the only real difference between a taxi and Uber is that Taxies can pick up
strangers right off the street. Yet is it not, the same thing that Uber does? Except
Taxi drivers have to pay extra money out of their own pocket to pay the city in
order to do it. It is hard enough to have to follow all the rules and get all
the right permits but now you have to compete with a company who gets to side
step all of those requirements. Yes, we need cheaper transportation but I do
not believe that this is the right answer. When it comes down to it Uber is not
cheaper than a Taxi with the surcharges that appear on ‘busy’, high demand
times and with no regulations if you are not paying attention you could be
paying 8x more than usual. Also with a company who promotes a ride within a
certain time Uber drivers will not just have taxies to compete with but other
Uber drivers. As more and more people get in the business the less work that
will go around cutting the income even more. This is not hurting the owners of
such companies but the workers of not just the taxi companies but eventually
the drivers of Uber who will come to depend on the income. Especially if Uber
manages to get driver-less vehicles on the road; they might have not promoted
that yet but with Goggle having the technology and the means already in place
how long before that becomes a reality!
As
Lefebvre talks about abstract space, which is the size, width, area, location
and ‘profit’ he also talks about how this may conflict with ‘social space’. How
people use the environment as a place to live. This App sounds great when you
think that it will allow people to get a cheap ride into the city and back
home. This might allow the economy to pick up again in areas where people have
been going to less and less. With the rise of the suburbs and the multicentred
region where the center of the city is no longer as important as it once was
getting people to return to those areas as become a challenge. However, once
again this type of transportation is only really for the middle class to the
upper class. Just because it claims to be cheaper, it does not mean that it is
affordable or even accessible to the lower class. Sixty-one percent of the population
now has smart phones yet with only 47% of 30-49 year olds with an annual
household income of less than $30,000 having cell phones and with the decrease
in credit card approvals. The likely
hood that the lower class benefits from such businesses is extremely small with
both a cell phone and credit card needed to use Uber and with 30 year olds
being the average age to use Uber.
Not
to mention that this type of technology that is now used to connect people with
specific needs without face-to-face interaction might be what leads to the
social isolation that Wilson describes in The Truly Disadvantaged as no contact
with mainstream society, lack of job opportunities and job networks. As Umar lee describes taxi
drivers are on the street picking up people every day to and from work or
school, to the grocery store, to the doctors and so on. This allows them to make
relationships with their customers and if in need they might even give them a
hand or go out of their way for something knowing they will most likely not get
a tip but with an App you lose that connection and with a swipe of a finger you
can reject any ride any person. (Wilson, 1987)
Do
companies like these really care for the long term effects that this might
have? With technology moving as fast as it is the world is trying to catch up
and everyone is trying to make a profit. This might work for a short period but
eventually it will plateau and/or decrease and someone else will try to find a different
way to make a profit. We need cheaper transportation for the masses I just do
not think that Uber or the like is the answer. It is leaving behind to many
questions and problems without thinking of the future, it’s employees and its
customers in order to take advantage of people in need, for a profit. Eventually,
the middle class will disappear and only the very rich and the very poor will
exist.
Works Cited
Gottdiener, M., Ryan, M. T., & Hutchison, R.
(2015). The New Urban Sociology (Fifth Edition ed.). Boulder, CO:
Westview Press.
Wilson, W. J. (1987). The
Truly Disadvantaged: The Inner City, The Underclass, and Public Policy. Chicago
and London: The University of Chicago Press.
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