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View Full Version : AOC urges followers to back Uber-Lyft boycott despite her staff's $2G ride tab in 2019



Teh One Who Knocks
05-09-2019, 10:56 AM
By Bradford Betz | Fox News


https://i.imgur.com/LPisrJxl.jpg

It seemed to be more "Do as I say, not as I do" leadership from U.S. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.

On Wednesday, the New York Democrat enthusiastically threw in her support for Uber and Lyft drivers ahead of a worldwide strike, but campaign finance records indicate her team has spent nearly $2,000 on ride-hailing services this year alone.

The boycott was organized in response to Uber’s anticipated initial public offering this Friday for more than $90 billion – a figure drivers say comes at the cost of reduced wages and job security.

In a Wednesday afternoon tweet, Ocasio-Cortez urged her followers to avoid using either Uber or Lyft to help support the drivers (though “Cabs are fine!" she wrote).
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“It’s a small but big way you can help all the drivers you’ve met get paid more to feed their families + support themselves,” she wrote.

But despite overtures of solidarity, campaign records show Ocasio-Cortez’s staff spent nearly $2,000 on ride-hailing services in the first three months of 2019, and more than $16,000 last year. And Wednesday was by no means the first time Ocasio-Cortez took aim at the such services.

Since declaring her candidacy to unseat incumbent Democrat Joe Crowley in May 2017, her campaign has relied heavily on Uber, Lyft, and Juno, despite criticizing them for underpaying their drivers.

In August, she appeared to blame Uber for a yellow cab driver’s suicide after he killed himself with a shotgun amid his inability to compete with the internet-inspired upstarts.
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“NYC”s fourth driver suicide. Yellow cab drivers are in financial ruin due to the unregulated expansion of Uber. What was a living wage job now pays under minimum,” she wrote.

Her campaign did cut some spending on Uber rides amid scrutiny. But those cuts were soon offset by the extensive use of Lyft and Juno, Federal Election Commission (FED) records show.

DemonGeminiX
05-09-2019, 11:00 AM
#MakeAOCaBartenderAgain2020

RBP
05-09-2019, 01:04 PM
Both Lyft and Uber are enormously unprofitable. I've yet to see anything indicating they can turn the corner without continued cuts to driver wages coupled with consumer gouging. Critical mass was supposed to solve it. It didn't. In the meantime, they have decimated the cab industry. I know they are betting on driverless vehicles as the solution now, but I don't buy that they started with that in mind. So the concept failed at a significant price. Guys in their 30's and 40's are going to be screwed when they've done this for 10 years and the jobs are eliminated. No different than the cabbies now.

Muddy
05-09-2019, 01:57 PM
It started out good.. Now it seems to have gone to pot.

Teh One Who Knocks
05-09-2019, 02:08 PM
Both Lyft and Uber are enormously unprofitable. I've yet to see anything indicating they can turn the corner without continued cuts to driver wages coupled with consumer gouging. Critical mass was supposed to solve it. It didn't. In the meantime, they have decimated the cab industry. I know they are betting on driverless vehicles as the solution now, but I don't buy that they started with that in mind. So the concept failed at a significant price. Guys in their 30's and 40's are going to be screwed when they've done this for 10 years and the jobs are eliminated. No different than the cabbies now.

Why do the companies have such high valuations?

Teh One Who Knocks
05-09-2019, 02:32 PM
:-s

Are you talking about stock prices?

Uber isn't publicly traded yet, but they will be looking at a high valuation when they do go public very soon:

https://i.imgur.com/qWZtBcx.png

DemonGeminiX
05-09-2019, 02:37 PM
Uber is currently between $80b and $91b (not publicly traded yet)

Lyft is currently $15b according to some sources and they're trading @ $53.58/share right now.

DemonGeminiX
05-09-2019, 02:38 PM
They're both gonna fall. There's no way either company should be that high.