With a value greater than the gross domestic product of some African countries, Uber could have paid for all of that. Its owners didn’t want to. So instead, Uber maintained the conceit that its drivers weren’t employees, but “contractors,” independent small business owners who just happened to be using Uber as a way to find customers. It was a semantic trick of incalculable value to the company, but it didn’t change the fact that Uber was running an enormously valuable business on the backs of exploited workers.
