When Uber first hit San Francisco most of the hype in my circles was finally being able to go out at night like New Yorkers always had. In Manhattan hailing a cab was simple. One was always going by.
San Francisco was neither so dense nor so populous so maybe you got lucky but mostly you called cab companies and waited outside of parties for for ages just to be sure someone wouldn’t steal your ride.
Talking to your taxi driver was more interesting. It was the quintessential immigrants job where one worked their way up to a taxi medallion. Different neighborhoods had different demographics. You’d learn a lot about the American dream.
Now that ride sharing and piece work contracting applications are entrenched in our social fabric the relationship is entirely different. Using an interface that cuts down interaction is a big part of the appeal. Maybe no one wants to hear about hopes and dreams anymore.
Except that I do. I am one of those chatty Cathy types who wants to let the conversation roam. Uber and Lyft (and whatever other delivery services they may also pick up) tend to be intermittent work to patch up the cracks in the drivers budget or circumstances.
I’ve had a number of veterans (as in military not as in experienced drivers) on my recent trip. This is also a typical demographic in Montana where it’s either former military or college kids looking for extra money.
Times rally must be changing as I’ve not had a prototypical immigrant driver in America for some time now. It’s largely white native born men looking to make ends meet. New York probably still has that style of driver but working class Americans of all stripes are now thoroughly integrated into application intermediary work flows.
Odd jobs used to be paid in cash and maybe some didn’t get reported. Now you’ve got 1099 income from every piece work source of income imaginable. No one is all that reasonable to anyone else. The companies are just the layer between customer and provider. I’m sure the governments must love this (despite protests to the contrary) as it makes it very easy to collect the taxes.