Editor,
I appreciate Mr. Mays’ discussion in his Aug. 27 column, “We outdid ourselves with ride-hailing rule effort,” specifically the bottom line: “Who is the beneficiary?” However enthused, the equivocation has me undone. Firstly, I agree that the society should reflect and observe that through these app-based companies — and that includes the “techies” — their “disruption” to industry has caused nothing more than a taxpayer nightmare, a societal gaffe that will take decades to remedy.
Yet, this meaning of “out-Californiaed ourselves” is vague and ineffectual; the problem is American, and it is not an isolated problem to this
period in history. Furthermore, and as Mr. Mays alludes, through media’s misdirection, whom in turn the voters followed, Prop. 22’s propaganda conveyed the delusional message that somehow getting employers to pay employees — as was defined in the IWC Orders before AB5 and Prop. 22 — would somehow punish these conned “gig workers,” and more so, force the consumer to pay more for these
services — absurdity!
Through traffic increases (before COVID-19), stifling wages, and increased prices, how has Prop. 22’s message been sustained? Lastly, the problem we face as Americans, and I hope Mr. Mays and everyone agrees, is greed, which should avail us to these prevailing questions: What has greed done to our society? And what do we intend to do about it? As Mr. Mays points out: we have spent a lot time and money, induced many into financial ruin, squandered an industry, and made some people (who did it the wrong way) extremely wealthy.
Kenneth Lustenberger
Burlingame
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