A Driver’s Suicide Reveals the Dark Side of the Gig Economy

So that’s what they call this devolution into slavery--the Gig Economy!

source

They ruin respectable professions and create modern slaves.

Uber and other modern predatory companies and of course the politicians who take their money will be responsible for the destruction of modern civilization eventually, as they bribe the politicians to ruin and destroy any vestige left of the underclass’s rights, and self respect.

Now my old man drove a cab so perhaps I'm sensitive to this horrible story...

On Monday morning, Doug Schifter, a livery driver in his early 60s, killed himself with a shotgun in front of City Hall in Lower Manhattan, having written a lengthy Facebook post several hours earlier laying out the structural cruelties that had left him in such dire circumstance. He was now sometimes forced to work more than 100 hours a week to survive, he said; when he had started out in the 1980s, a 40-hour week was fairly typical. He blamed politicians — mayors Michael R. Bloomberg and Bill de Blasio, Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo — and their acquiescence to the rich for permitting so many cars to flood the streets. He blamed the Taxi Commission for the fines and hassles it imposed.

Of course, most people, the predators justifiers will say, this is progress, and allow the sure steady destruction to proceed.

Indeed, one of the predator mainstays, Amazon, will dis-employ millions eventually with robotics and others will follow, indeed making robots out of human beings to go along with their mechanical AI robots. Capitalism is their God, never what is good for humanity.

They will claim this is progress but the only thing that will be progressing is the bulging of their bank accounts, not any progress of society.

As Uber came along and ruined a respectable industry for thousands of cab and limo drivers, many other industries, such as the IT, will join the funeral pyre of the decent jobs that will end up being minimum wage and bankruptcy traps, like this poor gentlemen who took his life and his other fellow drivers.

I hope this man, may God give him some peace, will be a catalyst for the people to WAKE UP!

He had lost his health insurance and accrued credit card debt and he would no longer work for “chump change,’’ preferring, he said, to die in the hope that his sacrifice would draw attention to what drivers, too often unable to feed their families now, were enduring. He had forecast all of this doom in columns he had written for a trade publication called Black Car News, he wrote, but few had listened to him. Implicit in his testament was the anger he felt over the de-professionalization of his life’s work. Mr. Schifter had driven more than five million miles throughout his tenure, through five hurricanes and 50 snowstorms. He had chauffeured celebrities and worn a suit. He was not driving a car to supplement the income he was getting from his crepe business and he was not trying to make a little extra money for massage. He was not a participant in the gig economy; he was a casualty of it.

a reply to: Willtell

He should have taken courses to increase his skill level and get out of that job.

Self responsibility has to come into play at some point in these situations.

a reply to: Willtell

Here is another Horror Story from " The Gig Economy "

Mr Lane’s widow, Ruth, told the Guardian that her husband had missed a number of appointments for his diabetes because he feared being hit with financial penalties by DPD. Read more CitySprint contract is ‘slap in the face’ says union He had once collapsed into a diabetic coma while on his delivery round. DPD fined him in July after he visited a specialist about eye damage caused by diabetes. He then worked through illness during the busy Christmas period before collapsing again in late December and dying on 4 January. Labour MP Frank Field, chair of the commons work and pensions select committee, said, “This awful loss of life represents a new low for the gig economy”.

www.independent.co.uk...


The Gig Economy is taking the workplace back to Victorian Times.

As a former driver for Yellow Cab. I understand his pain. The only way to make any money is to work 20 hour days 7 days a week. With all your money going towards gas and car lease, there was little left over to survive on. Cab driving is a job I wish everyone knows is nothing but a way to have your wallet connected to a money sucking vacuum clear operated by big companies and big government.

This is tragic, Willtell.

RIP Mr. Schifter.

originally posted by: carewemust
a reply to: Willtell

He should have taken courses to increase his skill level and get out of that job.

Self responsibility has to come into play at some point in these situations.

So, you are going to give advice to a dead man? But no judgment, right?

Thus my recent thread on the stock exchange.

Everyone thinks the economy is doing good but credit is at an all time high.

The easy money policy of the Fed is about to end and we will feel that one.

Ahh crap... both of those stories are horrendous... poor guys...

I get what carewemust is saying (ironic name there dude given your comment ): that people must be responsible for themselves and do what they can to change their circumstances.

I agree with that to a point but, for some, they're barely making enough money to eat and then go to work. Basically just existing. Retraining, learning etc costs money, and a LOT of it today in Britain at least (thanks Tories ). It's just not feasible for some people. If he's working 100 hours per week, when is he meant to study and improve himself?

For some it just isn't realistic.

And besides all that, treating people like disposable commodities and justifying it by saying "yeah well, they could just work harder and get themselves out of it" is pretty heartless in my opinion.

a reply to: Indrasweb

And besides all that, treating people like disposable commodities and justifying it by saying "yeah well, they could just work harder and get themselves out of it" is pretty heartless in my opinion.

The only psychopathic people who derive someone's worth simply and only from their perceived skill are people who greatly benefit from the current system.

originally posted by: Willtell most people, the predators justifiers, will say, this is progress

many will. but it isn't.

a reply to: toysforadults

It's sad man... I genuinely feel heartbroken when I think about people in such desperate and demoralizing situations. Just working to be able to feed themselves so they have the energy to get up and go back to work again, just to earn enough to feed themselves and on and on... meanwhile companies make ever increasing profits from the suffering of those people and STILL they demand more; "if only you'd work harder, you too could be successful like me".

What they fail to say is that, in order to profit in any substantial way, you MUST be willing to exploit others. It's the only way. And if you are not willing, you will never "make it".

Tragic.

I can so relate to this person...

I too am a delivery driver for restaurants and my hours have been cut way back which has made me very sad, not suicidal but just very down.

End result I will have to work massive hours for 3 different companies just to stay afloat...

Yet somehow so many people can drive for uber and make more than I do as a college degree holding many years of experience having professional in the entertainment industry working the same or less hours than I do. And whats more...they can work whatever hours they want so if someone wants to work 100hrs a week and make 1500$ there is no stopping them.

Also go figure NY blocked uber from operating in that state...

Cry me a river!

ETA: Sorry if my mini rant came off as brash but I am barely getting by in what most consider a good job here in Nashville...and I watch people who can't even speak English enough to take directions drive me to work and make more with no education than I do with all the time effort and debt that came with it.

originally posted by: carewemust
He should have taken courses to increase his skill level and get out of that job.
Self responsibility has to come into play at some point in these situations.

Agreed. I see lots of people every day who can do well in pretty much any economy because they're aware of what can and can't be accomplished and they work their butts off.

I think sometimes people kill themselves because they just can't step back from their situation and see their various options. Sick of your life? There's always the option of packing up enough to get by, moving somewhere nobody knows you, changing your name, getting a job bussing tables at a restaurant, and starting over. Hell, if things get bad enough, steal somebody's identity for a while. Yeah, it stinks to have to start all over again, but if you're in a position where you think killing yourself is the best way out, you're just wrong. There's always another way out. At this point in history (before we're all tagged), the whole world awaits.

a reply to: carewemust

He should have taken courses to increase his skill level and get out of that job. Self responsibility has to come into play at some point in these situations.

Are you serious?

He was now sometimes forced to work more than 100 hours a week to survive, he said;

What was it about the above sentence that you didn't understand.

There are 168 hours in a week some of which you have to spend eating, sleeping, you know human stuff. Perhaps you're actually a bot and thus wouldn't understand that whole human thing.

a reply to: Willtell

Why not just get a different job? People have choices in life, this guy chose to drive a cab.

a reply to: Willtell
In our town, cab drivers spend huge amounts of money for their licenses and then even more to their taxi company. They must work long hours to make ends meet, and will most likely be put out of work when Uber moves in. Alas, this is the free market. The taxi companies must modernize and move with the times or be lost in the shuffle.

I feel for this man who killed himself, but he didn't need to end it all over something so foreseeable.

What is it the OP suggests to combat this? After all, we do live in a free market society. If Pizza company opens next to another, they know they will be in direct competition with one another. This is what drives innovation and improvement. The company that does not improve gets lost in the dust.

Are you saying businesses that will compete with others should not be allowed to open?

originally posted by: Vector99
a reply to: Willtell

Why not just get a different job? People have choices in life, this guy chose to drive a cab.

Maybe he lacked the ability and required skills both mentally and socially that would be required to do anything other than drive.

Who knows ? Things arne't always " Black and White "

a reply to: alldaylong

Doesn't add up to me, he drove a taxi so he had to be somewhat social and interactive with people, and was able to endure long hours apparently. There are several jobs he would have been able to do.

It's a sad story, but too many people nowadays have a bad case of woes me, and a lack of initiative to do anything about it.

originally posted by: RickyD

ETA: Sorry if my mini rant came off as brash but I am barely getting by in what most consider a good job here in Nashville...and I watch people who can't even speak English enough to take directions drive me to work and make more with no education than I do with all the time effort and debt that came with it.

So why aren't you driving for Uber?