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posted by mrpg on Saturday March 03 2018, @12:35PM   Printer-friendly
from the dont-do-it dept.

A study conducted by the MIT Center for Energy and Environmental Policy Research analysed revenue and costs for over 1100 Lyft and Uber drivers, with the conclusion that most earn below minimum wage for their state and about 30% actually lose money when all the costs of owning and operating their vehicles are taken into account.

"A Median driver generates $0.59 per mile of driving, and incurs costs of $0.30 per mile", "On an hourly basis, the median profit was $3.37 per hour".

Because actual vehicle operating costs are significantly lower than the IRS allowance of $0.54/mile, many drivers report incomes that are substantially lower that their actual incomes, leading to a large pool of untaxed income (although it is small for each driver).

Techcrunch has a summary


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  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday March 04 2018, @12:10AM (1 child)

    by Anonymous Coward on Sunday March 04 2018, @12:10AM (#647351)

    Buying a lottery actually makes more sense if your goal is to get really really rich. For a lot of people it's the best chance for them to have a 100+ million dollars in their lifetime. So if that's your goal then I'd say it's worth a shot. Tons of people spend more on lattes and the odds of them getting 100+ million from that are even lower ;).

    How many poor people in the USA could _work_ their way up to a 100 million dollars? And what are the odds of that happening if they're not one of those with the aptitude and the "energy"? There are some people who can work two jobs but there are many people who'd fall sick if they tried that. In contrast buying a lottery ticket doesn't involve quite as much hard work.
    And there certainly are a number of jackpot winners per year: https://www.powerball.com/winner-stories/jackpot/10 [powerball.com]
    So in contrast how many people per year join the 100+ million dollars group who have achieved it by working hard from poverty? How many have worked hard to try the same thing and never succeeded in their lifetime?

    There are many poor people who slog their way up into lower middle class and then their kids reap the rewards. But that's far from the same thing.

  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday March 04 2018, @12:22AM

    by Anonymous Coward on Sunday March 04 2018, @12:22AM (#647362)

    See also: https://soylentnews.org/article.pl?sid=18/03/03/187209 [soylentnews.org]
    https://www.technologyreview.com/s/610395/if-youre-so-smart-why-arent-you-rich-turns-out-its-just-chance/ [technologyreview.com]

    It's as much bullshit telling the poor that they should work hard if they want to become really rich, as telling people that driving for Uber is a good deal. Someone is getting rich by their hard work but it's unlikely to be most of them.

    Work so you have some reserves for bad times. Because you can bet your life there are going to be bad times.