If you don't like working as Uber driver you can't quit!

OMG, I just realized that we live in a dystopian nightmare. Poor Gig workers have no free will. They literally are forced to work driving Uber fares because Big Brother (ergo Uber) is forcing them to against their will.

You may ask, with a massive shortage of workers and super low unemployment why don't they work somewhere else if they don't like driving?

It's not that simple stupid! Thank god they have the other Big Brother, aka. Joe Biden, the smart one engineering our economy. If only Trotsky had Joe's IQ!

Biden Goes After Gig Workers

A new Labor rule would reclassify millions of independent contractors.

By The Editorial, WSJ

Oct. 11, 2022 6:50 pm ET

The labor market is cooling while more Americans are using side hustles like driving for Uber to cope with rising prices. Yet now the Biden Administration is declaring war on the so-called gig economy and countless companies that utilize freelancers.

The Labor Department on Tuesday proposed a rule that aims to reclassify millions of independent contractors as employees. About 20 million Americans work as independent contractors, which have more autonomy than employees and can set their own hours and work for multiple companies at the same time.

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But progressives view these flexible arrangements as a burden, not a benefit. Independent contractors can’t unionize and aren’t covered by Labor’s wage and overtime mandates. Unions want to force businesses to reclassify contractors as employees, which is essentially what the proposed rule would do.

The Fair Labor Standards Act defines an employee as “any individual employed by an employer.” But the Supreme Court in a series of cases starting in the 1940s laid out a multi-prong “economic reality” test that instructs courts and businesses to weigh many factors when determining whether workers are employees or contractors.

These include the degree of a company’s right to control the manner in which work is done; a worker’s opportunity for profit or loss depending on skill; a worker’s investment in equipment or materials; whether the service requires a special skill; the working relationship’s permanence; and the extent to which a service is integral to a company’s business.

You can see how a job can swing both ways. Uber drivers perform work that is integral to the app’s business. But drivers transport passengers in their own cars and can make more or less depending on when, where, and how long they work. Is driving a special skill? Depends on whom you ask.

Different federal courts have placed different emphasis on different factors, which has resulted in confusion for companies, especially those that operate nationwide. The growth over the last decade of apps that offer flexible work arrangements, including in white-collar fields such as document translation and consulting, has compounded the confusion.

The Trump Administration tried to clear up the mess with a rule that told courts and companies to weigh foremost the nature and degree of a worker’s control and the opportunity for profit. This test enabled most independent contractors to remain so. The Biden proposal replaces the Trump rule with a “totality-of-the-circumstances” analysis that focuses on whether workers are “economically dependent upon an employer for work.”

Under this standard, gig workers would probably have to be reclassified as payroll employees. This would reduce worker flexibility and disrupt business models, which explains Tuesday’s selloff in Uber (-10.4%) and Lyft (-12%) shares. The proposed rule has the potential to sweep broadly and could cover most corners of the economy.

Newspaper columnists, truck drivers, real estate agents, barbers, consultants and many other freelancers could be ensnared. The Administration is proving it’s an equal-opportunity jobs killer.