The year is 2085. Ordinary Americans are so economically pressed that they must commute some three hours to work as independent contractor chauffeurs for companies that do not provide basic benefits. Not even those easing the driver’s burden of staying overnight in cheap boarding houses before traveling back to their homelands with what profits they manage to muster. The companies, meanwhile, consider this “very cool!”
Haha, no wait that’s 2016. That’s now! Our dystopian future has arrived, America.
This real-life parable begins with Cyrus Farivar, aneditor at Ars Technica, prolific Twitter user and Lyft passenger. While on a Lyft ride Friday, Farivar tweeted that his current driver commutes from Fresno to the Bay Area, a trip that takes about three hours by car, ostensibly to drive in a place with more potential passengers. This particular time, Fariver tweeted, his driver was even staying overnight in a hostel which, as any backpacker knows, isn’t exactly some cushy corporate accommodation.
My @lyft driver says he comes from #Fresno to Bay Area to drive. This time he stayed in a hostel for a night. pic.twitter.com/r7gPoEQRTm
Cyrus Farivar (@cfarivar) October 1, 2016
Now, so-called “sharing economy” companies such as Lyft take great pains not to classify their drivers as employees, but as independent contractors. This means those employees don’t receive benefits such as healthcare, maternity leave and the like. This, in turn, puts more economic pressure on drivers. It could, for example, lead to someone doing something like commuting six hours roundtrip to for a chance to pick up more passengers.
And back to Our Story.
Farivar’s microcosmic tweet drew a curious response from Lyft’s official Twitter account. Lyft, according to its Twitter response, considers it all “Very cool!” (And, by the way, “Thanks for sharing, Cyrus. :)”)
@cfarivar Very cool! Thanks for sharing, Cyrus. 🙂
Lyft (@lyft) October 1, 2016
One reading of this situation is that it illuminates an exploitative economic system in which everyday people must take extreme measures just to get by. That’s why Lyft’s Twitter reply is extra weird.
It gets better, though or worse, depending on how you look at it.
We emailed Lyft’s public relations team for its side of the situation and got an automated response. That automated response said to expect a reply within 24 hours, or to reply with our deadline in the subject line for a quicker reply.
So we did follow up, explaining that we were currently writing this post and in return got the same automated response again.
Anyway, welcome to the future, folks. It’s, um, “very cool”? 🙂
