Hva om vi eide Uber selv? (What if we owned Uber ourselves?)

Summary

A monthly podcast on economic solutions for a better world (04/21/2021)

What if we owned Uber ourselves? with Trebor Scholz

In the platform economy, the platform itself is various apps and websites that are used to link buyers and sellers together, or organize different services. Large, well-known examples are the taxi industry’s competitor Uber and the holiday home provider Airbnb. The sharing platforms will make life easier for both those looking for work, those who have something to offer, and those who want to use or buy a service. They will remove the intermediary between buyer and seller, and connect people more easily to each other. But they can also contribute to problems.

Scholz (pictured) mentions that it can be in the form of poor working conditions, low wages and that they take little responsibility for the local community in which they operate. The drivers are controlled by algorithms, and in Oslo restaurant owners are frustrated with how Foodora operates. Another problem may be low taxation and the use of tax havens. This is what Peter Ringstad and Tax Justice Network Norway talk about in their podcast Pengeland, and the episode Uberstress – sharing economy and tax

The idea of ​​platform cooperatives is also supported e.g. by the sociologist Juliet Schor in the book « After the Gig ». Nevertheless; Research is one thing, but such alternatives already exist. In episode # 14, we talk to the personal travel company Eva , which is based in Montreal, Canada. Dardan Isufi says that they were established as an alternative to Uber, after seeing how Uber operated in their city.