{"id":6221,"date":"2014-12-17T03:36:40","date_gmt":"2014-12-16T19:36:40","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/onthe8spot.com\/?p=6221"},"modified":"2014-12-17T03:36:40","modified_gmt":"2014-12-16T19:36:40","slug":"the-secret-to-the-uber-economy-is-wealth-inequality-quartz","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/onthe8spot.com\/index.php\/2014\/12\/17\/the-secret-to-the-uber-economy-is-wealth-inequality-quartz\/","title":{"rendered":"The secret to the Uber economy is wealth inequality – Quartz"},"content":{"rendered":"

The new middlemen
\nThere are only two requirements for an on-demand service economy to work, and neither is an iPhone. First, the market being addressed needs to be big enough to scale\u2014food, laundry, taxi rides. Without that, it\u2019s just a concierge service for the rich rather than a disruptive paradigm shift, as a venture capitalist might say. Second, and perhaps more importantly, there needs to be a large enough labor class willing to work at wages that customers consider affordable and that the middlemen consider worthwhile for their profit margins.
\nUber was founded in 2009, in the immediate aftermath of the worst financial crisis in a generation. As the ride-sharing app has risen, so too have income disparity and wealth inequality in the United States as a whole and in San Francisco in particular. Recent research by the Brookings Institution found that of any US city, San Francisco had the largest increase in inequality between 2007 and 2012. The disparity in San Francisco as of 2012, as measured\u00a0(pdf) by a city agency, was in fact more pronounced than inequality in Mumbai\u00a0(pdf).
\nOf course, there are huge differences between the two cities. Mumbai is a significantly poorer, dirtier, more miserable place to live and work. Half of its citizens lack access to sanitation or formal housing.
\nAnother distinction, just as telling, lies\u00a0in the opportunities the local economy affords to the army of on-demand delivery people it supports. In Mumbai, the man who delivers a bottle of rum to my doorstep can learn the ins and outs of the booze business from spending his days in a liquor store. If he scrapes together enough capital, he may one day be able to open his own shop and hire his own delivery boys.
\nHis counterpart in San Francisco has no such access. The person who cleans your home in SoMa has little interaction with the mysterious forces behind the app that sends him or her to your door. The Uber driver who wants an audience with management can\u2019t go to Uber headquarters; he or she must visit a separate \u201cdriver center.\u201d
\nvia The secret to the Uber economy is wealth inequality – Quartz<\/a>.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The new middlemen There are only two requirements for an on-demand service economy to work, and neither is an iPhone. First, the market being addressed needs to be big enough to scale\u2014food, laundry, taxi rides. Without that, it\u2019s just a concierge service for the rich rather than a disruptive paradigm shift, as a venture capitalist … <\/p>\n

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