Great piece by Ben Thompson on Uber and why social safety nets and entrepreneurism should go hand in hand.
It’s not that Uber is bad for not hiring workers and giving them attendant benefits, it’s that said benefits shouldn’t be Uber’s – or any employer’s – responsibility at all. It’s employer-based health care that is the problem, and in ways that go beyond the economic benefits of universal health care (the most obvious of which is the broadest possible risk pool, not to mention unmatched buying power). It’s that people are afraid to leave or lose their jobs because they lack the most basic of safety nets.
Free marketeers and proponents of universal healthcare tend not to be on the same side of the political divide, but they should be. You're unlikely to reap the benefits of free markets if most people are too afraid to be free.