For $7.50 I’d unironically use a walking buddy at least once
For safety in numbers, or talk therapy?
Novelty?
That’s literally the only reason to me. I’d be so weird for 20min that he’ll talk about it for a decade.
Them: white Kevin
You: dressed in a full body banana costume while awkwardly carrying a cinder block. Refuse to explain why, or talk about anything except a ranked list of the worst smells you’ve ever experienced. Destination is a closed public library at 2am. Say “well, it’s time to do the thing I came here to do.” Stand, watching them until they walk away.
OP is such a damn troll, lmfao.
For the first time, I saw a car with Uber stickers in my country. Wanted to peel them off, but I also don’t wanna get in a fight over it. Pretty sure it’ll mostly be used by foreigners because the local alternative has several years of advantage and is also a multinational now.
Why?
friend, if i gotta burn down shit while facing forced disappearance to el salvador, you’d better be peeling the corporatists’ stickers off cars to protect your local alternative
Friend, I live at least 7 timezones away from you. I appreciate you burning shit down, but the people who voted the orange fascist into power are your friends and family, not me.
is your nation so removed from the world as to be immune to the resurrection of fascism and the march of billionaire monopolists? i suppose I’m nearly 12 timesones away from North Sentinel Island
If the fascists here take over, it’ll be the local ones tbh. But don’t worry, I’m already running a personal trade surplus with the USA. Trump would hate me.
America is so large that it’s very possible that person has no friends or family who voted for trump at all. I know I don’t.
There can be entire communities that know of no one that voted for the opposite candidate. That’s what helped feed the “stolen 2020 election” narrative. Some truly think that Trump should have won in a landslide because “No one I know likes Biden, how could he have won?”.
Suddenly everyone is on their high horse about number of time zones away.
Also is Uber really the number one corporation we need to be fighting right now?
I would like this
I don’t say this much but that is actually a good idea, considering the amount of people that live very lonely and isolated lives. Maybe this can help some people to talk, enjoy another’s company, etc. Maybe. Everything else the effing internet and tech companies tried only managed to push people apart…
Except that it gives predators an easy way to be alone with drunk women. I wouldn’t trust Uber’s security checks.
You don’t have to trust the security checks, but they had to submit their personal information and documents to Uber, and would be easy to find if they did anything. And have two devices actively recording their location. That’s much better than an anonymous stranger, and I doubt a predator would go through all that instead of just, you know, remaining an anonymous person on the street.
Same risk with a driver, I’d guess.
Yeah but this is more accessible to those who don’t have good enough credit for a car.
sure, it’s nice to do something about loneliness. Makes me think of human libraries, where you can borrow a human to have a talk with. But please, let’s do these things voluntarily and not for profit. There’s something nasty about “I’m only willing to speak to you if you pay me”.
Isn’t that a japanese thing? With cafes where you go to talk with a person?
But back to the subject at hand.
I could see this as a way to get someone’s help to take some groceries home or some large object a single person can’t, as it is too akward to hold alone.
Or as a personal guide or to have company to go to/through somewhere someone does not feel comfortable.
Uber invented escorts
Why is the walking buddy holding hands? Are they letting you know Kevin is single and ready to mingle?
Both see the same offer, neither get the money
Ah yes, the escort service.
About to rent me one
so that you can google map together?
i assume, if this were real, which it isn’t, the idea would be that everyone on the app has to pass a background check, so if you’re walking through an unfamiliar neighborhood and you’re a class of person who has reason to fear walking alone, you’d have someone there with you to help you be just a little more safe. obviously not as good as an actual trusted friend, but for certain people in certain situations, better than nothing
A lot of people can pass a background check that you wouldn’t want to escort your daughter.
No different than getting in an Uber or taxi for that matter, except it’s harder to escape a car on the highway.
no for sure. it’s just we live in hell and there’s gonna be times you’re gonna be somewhere and you’re like “even a pretend friendly stranger who sucks will be better than nothing”
Even more so, a pretend friendly stranger that’s documented as being in your location.
So they can’t hire anyone in the class of people who’d have reason to fear walking around in certain neighborhoods?
Women, trans men, and certain minority groups would be discriminated against in their hiring? Or would using this service come with the risk of someone that’s more likely to get you targeted?
I feel like this wouldn’t work for many reasons.
This would be legitimately amazing.
Did not expect Uber entering to pimp industry.
Do they bring their own leash or can you use your own?
Can I use the one with the fuzzy collar?
Honestly this is a great joke but also could legitimately be a good service for someone who didn’t feel safe walking alone, or needs help navigating
A lot of university campuses have this. It’s a good idea.
They probably don’t charge money for that service though, and that’s a better idea.
They do, it’s part of the tuition
Not really the same. Charging for this would discourage people from using it. They have to make a choice on feeling safe vs. spending money.
This gives everyone the option and subsidizes it to the entire community.
This is exactly why socializing things like this is beneficial.
Every service has a cost. That cost is the value of the labor being provided. But we decide as a society that providing services like this benefits everyone living in society. Regardless of if they use it directly or not.
When people say “free” in this context that’s what they mean. They mean the decision based on personal finance is removed.
We don’t want people choosing personal finance over safety or health. Removing that dependency benefits everyone.
Good point. A sort of community service I guess
Glad you got that! Its a major point in talking about social programs. If you can see this in college programs you can see the benefit when applied to social programs as well. Not sure if I can convince you of that too. But it’s always nice to get a response of “that makes sense” in this context.
It’s also run by people vetted by the school who are also employees so they generally have other responsibilities and then the service doesn’t generate a profit. Which is a long way of saying it’s not even remotely close to being the same
Maybe subsidized by it, but a lot of services from my local state institution are accessible by all.
John Mulaney has a joke about how his parents knew Bill Clinton that way, from all going to undergrad together at Georgetown. Apparently all the women loved being escorted by Bill Clinton, and the men were all jealous.
Well yeah, he was the president.
Wait: My memory of the story was that Clinton loved to escort women around and constantly signed up for the duty, and everyone else on all sides of the equation had no particular strong feelings about it. Except for John Mulaney’s mom.
Tbh, it makes sense. You don’t end up being president by being a no-rizz fool. You may be considering bringing up Trump as a counter-argument, but just look at all the people that are letting him pound them in the ass right now.
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The 99%
I found out in my senior year, that my campus had been plagued by a serial rapist for several years, going back to before i was a freshman, and the school had covered it up. I only found out about it when i learned that my roommate’s girlfriend had a sorority sister on a full-ride scholarship to keep her quiet about being raped in her freshman year.
Suddenly, the pressure to use their chaperone service became clear.
My school had a number you could call and they’d dispatch a golf cart with 2 student workers to take you anywhere on campus for free, 24/7 (minus holidays and breaks when University offices were cosed).
how can it be this cheap though? sure it doesn’t require gas but it takes longer so the guy would need more pay for the service right?
If they actually matched up with the routes other people might take, I would do it. I’m always walking around downtown anyways, but I’m a relatively large poor-looking man so I never get hassled.
The business model is to make it cheap initially by subsidizing it with investor capital. So, the gig worker may be paid more than the user is being charged. Then, eventually raise the price once the user base is large enough and dependent enough on it (or the prior alternative is sufficiently put out of business).
Especially if they’d help carry your bags and whatnot; that could be very helpful for someone who has mobility issues or just has a lot of things they need to bring. Well worth $7.50
You’re right, this is a great services for predators to register.
It’s a great idea. This is the shit side of it.
Speaking as a person who does not fit the demographic for this service, the big problem I see with it is how you trust that the walking buddy is actually going to be safer than nothing. Uber drivers are somewhat regularly in the news for assaulting women and I know several women that don’t like riding them alone
I feel awfully called out as a 1994 white Kevin…
Hahaha white Kev never can catch a break
