Investment BS Thread - Stocks/Futures/Mutual Funds/Bonds/Commodities/Options/ETFs/401ks/Etc

judge classified workers as actual employees vs contractors which then requires them to pay for all sorts of extra stuff for those workers.

 

Good luck to a non-profitable company paying these "employees" anything. They'd have to shut down overnight.

 

WOW. CNBC website headline (and you can see it in the URL):

Actual headline:
Uber CEO says its service will probably shut down temporarily in California if it’s forced to classify drivers as employees
https://www.cnbc.com/2020/08/12/uber-may-shut-down-temporarily-in-california.html

What shenanigans. Went for the "assume it's for 'rona rollbacks" tactic from the website snip. Classy.

 

To me, UBER was a really cool idea that worked well when it started off. It got too big, went public, and the government doesn't even know how to regulate it. There are so many issues. Do the employees need minimum wage? Or will they be treated like restaurant workers with tips? Medical? Dental? 401k? Where does this money even come from? It's a regulatory nightmare, and a business model that can't sustain itself.

 

I am conflicted. My wife is a fitness instructor and she works for several gyms. Every single one is a 1099 and she has to figure out her own stuff. Uber, to me, is a tool for a contractor to arrange rides from customers. You drive person from A to B, get paid X amount, uber takes its cut for making the tool, gives you the monies and gives you a 1099 as a private contractor.

But, I don't know much on the issue. I could be way off base. I was just grumpy at the reporting. But their business model is not "make money today", it's "break even at best today while we force out the competition so we have a monopoly and then make MORE money than if we made monies today!"

 

If they could run it that way, and be left alone by regulators, I think it's an awesome business idea. It should just be a tool, because that's what it is. When the regulators step in though, it becomes an employer, and probably can't run like that. I'd like to see it left alone as just an "app" but I don't think that's how this will play out.

 

They could probably get away with it if they charged the drivers to use the “booking service” like some hair stylists pay for a chair at a salon. I’m sure they can figure it out.

 

Well, don't they? They take a cut off the payments to the drivers, I guess it's just the way it's structured? I can guarantee right now though, the heads at Uber are enacting their backup plans should they be declared employees, they're going to find a way to roll it back to being contractors somehow some way. Or, just stop offering their service in California.

I didn't read the decision, does it apply to all ride shares or just Uber specifically because of their structure?


PS - Nerdy bits: this site updates constantly with aerospace flight information.
https://www.cirium.com/thoughtcloud/covid-19-navigating-the-flight-plan-to-recovery-daily-update/



It's a gradual change. Aerospace is always a quick dive and a slow recovery. BUT we're on the slow up-trend. Into Q4 and the winter, this might stabilize and become relatively level.

 

My wife is a Zumba instructor...She stepped back last fall and just wanted to attend classes which makes the taxes easier...All of those individual payments for teaching...uugh...

 

THIS is why we pay someone to do our taxes right now. She gets about 20 or so 1099s each year. Once we move out of our house and go back to renting, I might try to take over the taxes again, but to combine house stuff, plus the stack of 1099s. Plus, this year with the 'rona....we'll almost definitely be paying someone else too much money to do that for us again this year.

 

And the money was absurdly small...I told her do it for free..it's cheaper
She told them she would teach for free classes but they still wanted the paper trail for legitimate business sake...so she stepped back.

 

Can't blame them -- instructor on schedule and no matching 1099's / paperwork, big red flag suggesting under-the-table payments.

 

True, but that could probably be overcome by a quick contract. But then there may still be liability issues.

 

I have a general question: did we just experience something historic as far as the market goes?

For example, will people look back at 2020 similar to 2000 and 2008?

I ask because I hope we did. That was easy. I watched 40%+ of my money disappear but didn’t flinch. I got rid of some junk and immediately redeployed the cash into what I feel is better quality.

I’ve only been in the market for a little over 2 years, so I was wondering if that was serious? Or a minor speed bump? Thoughts?

 

that wasn’t a speed bump. I’m only 27 the 2008 disaster was my freshman year of high school. This will definitely be written about. Not only that it’s actually rewriting text books already. About robust supply chains, if we see an entire country wiped out due to an infection etc. a lot of our supply base was in China sole source. So they’re already teaching and learning from this in having your supply chain spread throughout the world not all concentrated in one area.

 

That’s a pretty good thought exercise. Definitely historic. I was actually thinking, do we even call it a recovery? Not many things have actually recovered. Certain sectors have taken off, health care, tech, “stay at home” stocks. But so many things aren’t recovered. Travel, restaurants, foot traffic dependent businesses etc.

So it’s tough to know how this will be looked at,, bankruptcies obviously, more to come I’m sure. And however it thins out the competition in many of those beaten down sectors. As for many people investments? It was mostly a speed bump for those who maintained throughout. I didn’t touch 401k’s, and they are back to where they were. I guess we will see how the next couple months go, but right now, it looks like a unique event that will hopefully be well studied so it remains a unique event.

 

I am just asking the question in terms of the stock market, there’s damage to the economy but that’s a whole different story.

I mean, honestly, if you have a plan it’s easy to watch your money drop. Stick to the plan, buy at the lows if possible. I didn’t know how I’d handle it until it came, but it wasn’t bad at all. I was just wondering if that drop was considered bad or a minor bump in the road. I hope to hold through many more so it’s just to build confidence asking this.

 

It's being well studied.
Not so that it will be a unique event, but so that it can be done better next time.
We have yet to experience the fall out from this go 'round .

 

I’d like another buying opportunity, I’m way more ready this time. I’ve saved a lot since it’s not too tempting to buy at these prices.

 

I think this is how many people saw it. It was a big drop, but there seemed to be legs for recovery pretty quickly. If it causes a longer term downturn on the backside of this when the toll it took starts to be realized, then it will be a much bigger speed bump than what it was. A stalled out recovery, with the fed running low on options to prop things up, it could still look worse than it does now. But I’d say your strategy is good to get you through any market turbulence in the long run.