Right now free market capitalism is dead.
Its global supply chain model has been laid bare for the exploitation it’s always been by a virus that births a culture that now only trusts local and wants walls built to expel the outside.
It means the State must step in as the largest employer until a vaccine is available, it means ways of life are changed.
The fracturing of neoliberal capitalism demands leaders prepared to use the full force of the State to reshape the economic hegemony.
Symbolism matters and that’s why Jacinda and Grant have an opportunity to show they mean business by rebuilding the economy.
Smack Uber down hard…
Covid 19 coronavirus: Uber Eats charges another peril for restaurants
As restaurants hammered by the Covid-19 lockdown prepare to partially reopen for business, they have been dealt another blow after ever-growing delivery service Uber Eats fended off hopes it would drop its commission rate.
Uber Eats charges between 30-35 per cent on all orders, and with profit margins for food outlets set at around 3-5 per cent, many business owners have been losing money on the service.
A week out from the country leaving lockdown alert level 4, Restaurant Association boss Marisa Bidois revealed that the body had hoped Uber Eats would drop its commission rate.
She also revealed it had called on the Government to enforce a cap on commission rates for all third-party delivery companies.
…San Francisco has already capped the fee...
The Association is now urging the Government to implement a cap on commissions charged by food delivery platforms, following the lead of San Francisco, where Uber originated.
This week, the city’s Mayor placed a 15 percent cap on commissions in the Bay Area for the duration of the COVID-19 pandemic, a move the Association says will “give Kiwi hospitality businesses a fighting chance of survival”.
…transnational parasitic companies like Uber who disrupt the existing local work force and skirt employment law and tax obligations are the bane of a post-pandemic capitalism and smacking them hard would show Jacinda & Grant are serious about the economic reformation that must now take place if they are to survive the economic apocalypse that could still sink their chances at the ballot box in September.
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Agreed 100% there Martyn.
Uber are just another money making sceme entirely.
Using people who are prepared to use their own vehicles to deliver food is just another way of lowering their “overhead costs” and leveling them on low paid people who shouder the costs of transport.
But we should rememeber the worst effects are that using single vehicle deliveries of food will increase the transport “emissions of Climate change” that Uber are sadly free from proving that their bussiness is within the global ’emission’s of green-house targets.
Hahaha neoliberalism is going nowhere, if anything it will become further entrenched because of this pandemic. Expect inequality and poverty to explode as well. Stop being delusional, you know in your heart of hearts that nothing will change, even if it needs to.
“if they are to survive the economic apocalypse that could still sink their chances at the ballot box in September.”
IF?…they are toast already mate!, wait and see. As the job & business losses add up tenfold, as the financial mental health toll mounts, more people homeless from forced mortgagee sales,…as other nations move forward while NZ sits idol still hiding under the blanket like scaredy cats waiting for C19 to leave from under the bed continues….
They ARE toast!
National are toast, mate. They have a leader who can’t help but insert both of his feet into his mouth whenever he deigns to open it. They have rumblings of discontent over Bridges crippling lack of judgement. They have a donation scandal stalking them like the ghost of Christmas past. They have zero plans or policies that aren’t essentially tired retreads of already failed plans and policies, and every single time they say something snarky about Jacinda’s handling of the pandemic, almost the entire voting public of New Zealand tells them to pipe down unless they have a better idea. Which they don’t. National hasn’t had a better idea since life first crawled forth from the primordial ooze. They’re a shit party full of shit people (except for Nikki Kaye — she’s quite pleasant) driven almost exclusively by self-interest and a need to keep their big-end-of-town donors happy. If the Opposition benches spontaneously combusted while Parliament was sitting, the country would be immeasurably better off.
Also, MSD/WINZ are on a recruitment drive. Phoning beneficiaries asking them if they have a licence, a car, good credit history(?) and can pass a drug test and are ready to work … fast-food delivery driver on a poxy on-call casual contract at $5.50 to $9.50 per delivery. less, income tax, fuel costs, registration, WOF, maintenance ect … also this is to cover their own holiday pay, earners levy as well. It does not pay enough to cover those basic costs that you can not escape.
These idiots at WINZ do not have a clue how the real world works.
And winz will also screw over the beneficiary they forced into the job by going, no you can not deduct income tax, fuel costs, registration, WOF, maintenance ect, unless you become GST registered, they will also then want you to put in the gross, before GST is deducted figure for there deduction, they will lead unprepared beneficiaries to the mercy of the tax department, incorrectly assess the benefit entitlement for these people, threaten them with fraud for challenging it, and in some case set some new court precedents not in WINZ favour.
The day any internet platform starts charging users money, they’re no longer an online community, they’re a business. As the GDPR makes clear, any government whose citizens that business involves has a right and an obligation to regulate them in the public interest. Uber Eats are not floating in cyberspace, they are in Aotearoa, employing kiwis as drivers and selling delivery services to kiwi food businesses. The NZ government must not let the technology used confuse them into giving app-based businesses special treatment.
A 15 percent cap on commissions in the Bay Area for the duration of the COVID-19 pandemic – excellent idea – these mega companies are destroying worker conditions while semi-legally paying less taxes!
Uber Created a $6.1 Billion Dutch Weapon to Avoid Paying Taxes
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2019-08-08/uber-created-a-6-1-billion-dutch-weapon-to-avoid-paying-taxes
Big multinational companies seem to be NZ’s governments adoration… they can do no wrong! Big business has NZ’s best interests as heart and are completely trustworthy, don’t they?
Google shifted $23 billion to tax haven Bermuda in 2017: filing
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-google-taxes-netherlands-idUSKCN1OX1G9
Google pays €47m in tax in Ireland on €22bn sales revenue
https://www.theguardian.com/business/2016/nov/04/google-pays-47m-euros-tax-ireland-22bn-euros-revenue
Uber are greedy sods.
Fat chance of that happening.
This just another neo-liberal government in disguise.
If this was a Labour government they would have stopped taxing beneficiaries the day they took office.
The argument that it is difficult is given the lie by the swiftness of the action to pay out to the subsidy to businesses.
It could be done immediately at the flick of a switch.
And they (Labour) could of stopped importing 50,000+ migrants a year which forces NZ citizens into a low wage situation, puts a massive strain on infrastructure like housing…(remember that housing crisis they were going to fix which actually started before 2008 with Helen Clark & Co letting a housing bubble develop)
Instead Labour prefers to put NZ citizens in motels and buys refugees homes
They could of stopped ALL foreigners not buying our homes & land & businesses, but no…they leave the door open for Singapore & any Foreign Company that wants to form a property investment portfolio
Since Labour took power its all gotten worse! National are CCP ‘sell outs’ for sure….BOTH parties are neo-liberal backers through & through…but hey……Jacinda will save us right!
“New boss…same as the old boss”
Ross, 50,000 migrants being imported was 10 years ago, nowadays we bring in 300,000 on temp student, work and other visas. Only takes 10 days to process the visa, although due to excessive demand now taking 4 months to get the world into NZ. You don’t need a job or a real course, and can just fake the paperwork to say you have money! Once you have the visa you often get free health care in NZ and can bring in your love interests and extended family even if you are here temporarily. Oh vote in 1 year, buy property. Nothing stopping you from having children here either, in fact that helps you gain permanent residency! Remember when you commit crimes you will not be deported or you will join a long expensive queue to deport you and probably never happen, we love crims here!
Facts: “Promotions
Restaurants and the Uber Eats app are open for business again in New Zealand starting Tuesday, 28 April.
We’re committed to supporting our restaurant community during this difficult time and have launched a series of restaurant initiatives aimed at supporting them as they get back on track.
V We’re giving independent restaurants in New Zealand and Australia up to $5 million to use on in-app promotions for their customers.
V No service fees for restaurants on Pickup orders – until 30 June 2020.
V No sign-up fees for new restaurants and caterers – until 4 May 2020.
V Restaurants can choose to receive their payments daily.
V You can add a tip to your order – the restaurant will receive 100% of it.”
It’s so sad to see how these big companies are ripping off small business. I found a kiwi made alternative that lets you set up an online store for free – https://www.swiftly.nz/
Hopefully more people wake up to the need for cooperation during this time.
Just a thought here…nobody HAS to use Uber Eats. Or is it mandatory and compulsory?
The problem is something still has to address the needs of people. How you came to think of capping fee’s as counterproductive to addressing people’s needs during a public health crises is a great mystery.
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