Yesterday, I shared with you how Uber drivers perform the majority of the work and pay for the privilege. As I pointed out to you yesterday, Uber does not pay wages or benefits to its drivers. The drivers pay for their own cars and their own insurance as well as their gasoline. From there, any money they make over their costs, and after paying Uber for the privilege of doing the work, they may or may not show a profit. However, what is most insidious about the business model is the position taken by the politicians that advocate for Uber to stay in the community.

In El Paso, the standard political battle cry is higher wages and transferring the tax burden away from the homeowner unto the commercial enterprises. Yet, with Uber, many of these politicos see no problem with Uber not doing anything to raise wages or pay their share of taxes.

As I pointed out yesterday, the Uber driver pays for everything, including the gasoline and registration taxes for the community they operate in. By the fact that they increase their driving by working for Uber, they put more stress on the city’s infrastructure without paying more.

Therein lies the hypocrisy. Uber pays nothing into the local tax base. They do not have an office nor do they keep paid employees in the community.

They pay no taxes into the community.

Yet, Uber stresses the infrastructure by increasing the usage of the roads by independent contractors. Say what you may about taxi companies, but the fact remains that they pay fees. Those, however little, offsets the costs to the community’s taxpayers. Even mass transportation, as expensive as it is for the taxpayers in many ways, keeps the stress on the infrastructure less than independent drivers tearing up the streets for one, or two passengers.

Therein lies the hypocrisy. El Paso politicos have embarked on a public policy agenda of forcing minimum wages and encouraging commercial tax payments into the community but yet support a company that does neither.