Grandmothers may know best, as Hillary Clinton has put it in tweets, but judging by her latest economic speech, they don’t necessarily get or like Uber.
The ride-sharing service is synonymous with the new efficiency and convenience enabled by information technology, and is anathema to regulators and entrenched interests everywhere. Add to the list of its critics the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee.
Hillary Clinton didn’t mention Uber by name but warned about the disruption caused by it and other companies in the so-called sharing economy. Her husband wanted to build a bridge to the 21st century; Hillary worries about the downsides of “advances in technology and expanding global trade.”
Republicans would be foolish not to welcome a contrast with Hillary over some of the hottest companies in the world. The Bush campaign let it be known that Jeb will order an Uber ride in San Francisco during a campaign swing there. If he really wants to stick it to Hillary, he will find someone handy to do minor repair work at his Miami headquarters through TaskRabbit, or borrow a wrench during his next trip to Des Moines through NeighborGoods.
In the liberal imagination, the sharing economy is hurting workers by substituting part-time, contractor work for higher-paying full-time jobs that come with the full panoply of traditional benefits and protections. This line of attack creates the impression that these new firms are sucking workers from stereotypical 9-to-5 jobs so they can be dispossessed by tech-savvy entrepreneurs. But obviously something is drawing workers to this kind of work.
In a study for Uber, Princeton University economist Alan Krueger found “drivers who partner with Uber appear to be attracted to the platform in large part because of the flexibility it offers, the level of compensation and the fact that earnings per hour do not vary much with hours worked, which facilitates part-time and variable hours.”
Uber is really a paragon of choice. Its drivers decide when or if they are going to work, and customers call it up at will. It cuts out the middleman in the form of the shabby, highly regulated taxi cartels more concerned with their own interests than customer satisfaction or convenience.
