Hillary Clinton and her campaign made a special point to attack startups like Uber and Airbnb over the weekend in a preview of Clinton’s sure-to-be stale economic speech this morning. Perhaps sensing some pushback from “everyday Americans” that use these services, the Clinton campaign tried to walk back her criticism in Playbook:
–CLARIFICATION from yesterday’s Playbook: Uber is an example of Clinton’s views on the sharing economy. Don’t look for her to mention the firm by name.
So if Clinton herself isn’t going to go after Uber, why were her campaign aides doing so with every outlet willing to write about her speech? See below:
CNN:
Clinton, aides said, will attack the “sharing economy” — represented by companies like the ride-sharing app Uber — which create jobs but don’t offer benefits and protections.
In her speech, aides said Clinton will argue that tectonic forces in the global economy are conspiring against middle-class families — such as automation and technology, which are eliminating middle-skill jobs that once provided solid incomes, as well as the new “sharing economy,” epitomized by Uber, which has created efficiency but also jobs lacking benefits and protections. But she will say that the government should enact policies to shape how these forces affect Americans.
Clinton’s aide said she will discuss some of the structural forces conspiring against sustainable wage growth, such as globalization, automation, and even consumer-friendly “sharing economy” firms like Uber and Airbnb that are creating new relationships between management and labor (and which now employ many Obama administration alumni). But she will argue that policy choices have contributed to the problem, and that she can fix it.
Clinton’s speech will take on the shortcomings of automation and the sharing economy (think: Uber, Airbnb), making the case that these trends, while valuable, need to come with better policies for workers.
Good try Team Clinton, but it’s a lot harder to cozy up to a wildly popular service after you publicly trash it.