Wealthy, old Indian princess decides she knows better how, when, and where you should work . . .

 Elizabeth Warren slams Uber and Lyft - FT.com

Sorry, on further review, it appears that the whole Indian Princess gig is just a lark, and her proof was little more than an apocryphal story, and a recipe stolen from a cookbook. One might nickname her, Truthy McTruthpants. 

"Ms Warren said the US was suffering from an “outdated employee benefits model” that made it hard for temporary and contract workers in the tech sector and beyond to build any personal economic security. 

The US does suffer from an outdated employee model, the one she seeks to impose on these independent contractors. And note in the first paragraph below that the FT admits that Warrens three changes are likely to "threaten the business model of companies such as Uber and Lyft."

"She proposed three changes that would be likely to increase the cost base and threaten the business model of companies such as Uber and Lyft.

One was to ensure that all workers have some paid sick leave. A second was that every worker should be covered by “catastrophic insurance” to cushion the impact of accidents or illness that knock them out of the labour market for a prolonged period of time.

The third was to ensure that every worker — even if they do not have an employer — pays into the social security system for retirees."

Presumably, she wants these independent contractors to continue receiving their current payments, but to have Uber, et al. pay for these three new goodies. This would pretty much kill the business model, so Uber, et al. would have to do something different, either reduce the independent contractors payments by the amount of these three goodies, and then makeup this loss by paying for the three goodies. Yeah, a net wash bait and switch game due to idiotic government intervention. Or Uber, et al. could simply increase the cost of the ride.

We know empirically that raising prices reduces demand, so this would reduce the demand, and the total dollars flowing to Uber, and by extension the independent contractors. This means that raising the price would cause these costs to be born by customers, the customers who can no longer afford the ride, Uber itself, and the independent contractors who either lost fare income, or who quit driving due to the reductions in fare income. 

Perhaps our faux Indian Princess could dig into he huge pot of wealth and pay these people back for injuring them? Probably not.

This would create a huge economic loss, with no appreciably similar economic gain.

The other option of essentially requiring the independent contractors to pay for these goodies does not change things as they are today. The IC's can already provide themselves those benefits, but do so by choice, forcing them to convert income to these benefits is the progressive blue model in action. The old faux Indian Princess knows better than the younger workers (everyone is younger then that antique), and intends to show them. 

Maddog is nonplussed by the willingness of so many people to listen to and accept as valuable the nonsense spewed by progressives like Warren. As of this week, Maddog is chalking it up to the Jodie Foster Effect:

"How do these people have all the time to know the things that they know?” She searched for the answer to her own question, and smiled. “I think I’m just not . . . I’m not a fact person. I don’t really care about facts. I don’t even really retain them and I find them anxious-making. I like ideas.” 

Jodie Foster on Wall Street’s ‘Rigged System,’ Mel Gibson, and Stars’ Right to Privacy

People like Jodie don't care about facts, they find facts make them anxious, and so avoid them. And like Jodie, they simply bask in ideas they like. Mostly this means adopting an ideology which makes them feel good about themselves, regardless of actual outcomes. Here some cohort of the Independent Contractors must believe there is a pot of money out their in the Uber headquarters just waiting for Warren to tap for their benefit. Sorry children, there isn't. And not knowing how the world actually works, and instead relying on a 19th century Socialist understanding of how the worlds works is no way to go through life. At least not if one wishes to make something of it. 

Mish also read Warrens posturings, "Is Warren a clueless Luddite or does she simply belong in France longing for the French-style protections (with more than double the US unemployment rate as a “benefit”)?"

Is Elizabeth Warren a Luddite (or Does She Simply Belong in France)? | MishTalk

Maddog is going with French Luddite, since she is obviously not an Indian Princess. He goes on to note:

"The irony in Warren’s nonsensical rant is Uber drivers will cease to exist altogether in the not so distant future.

Uber tests 1st self-driving car in Pittsburgh

Please consider Uber Tests 1st Self-Driving Car in Pittsburgh.

Uber is testing its first prototype of a self-driving car on the streets of Pittsburgh, the ride-hailing company said Thursday.

In a blog post, the company says it has equipped its Advanced Technologies Center in the U.S. city with its first driverless vehicle, a modified Ford Fusion with radar, laser scanners and high-resolution cameras attached to the roof.

The vehicle in question still has a human behind the wheel during testing. The company says it’s still in the early stages of its self-driving tests and needs to make sure the technology is safe.

Uber picked Pittsburgh because of its “wide variety of road types, traffic patterns and weather conditions.”

Uber is in a pack of automotive and technology companies rushing to bring autonomous vehicles from conception to reality. Although it calls itself a technology company, Uber’s core business turns ordinary drivers into de facto taxi drivers who can give people rides in 450 cities worldwide.

“In the future we believe this technology will mean less congestion, more affordable and accessible transportation, and far fewer lives lost in car accidents.'"

Antique carbuncles like Warren cannot understand that their conception of how the world works was outdated 30 years ago, and now that we are blessed with the Internet, and the smart phone, our socioeconomic model is beginning to change rapidly. Warren, Clinton, and virtually all of the Democrats want the old progressive model to make a triumphant return. But the people who lived through the end of the last century do not want that. While progressives want the mill work jobs of the 1970s, not one of us who worked those jobs want them again. 

The great change in the 21st century America will be the dismantling of the progressive blue model, and the replacement of that now long outdated socioeconomic model with something which can move us forward through the 21st century and perhaps into the 22nd. Until we accept this and turn away from the antediluvian ideas of the progressive political coterie, we will be mired in a moribund economy with little growth, weak employment, and stagnant wages. 

As I have said on so many occasions, if the Boomers are willing to address these issues with the assistance of GenX, and the Millennials, this can likely be resolved in a way beneficial to all. The Boomers today seem unwilling to do this and it is they standing athwart the engine of progress shouting "Backwards to the future!" 

If they continue in this vein, the results will be the Millennials will address this issue after the Boomers are retired, and a good portion of the Boomer cohort have died off. The resulting correct then will be brutal on the poorer remaining Boomers. 

The Boomers need to choose carefully, wisely, and soon.