“I did this once in Italy for a $160 ride. Totally worked out.”
A TikTok creator’s story about an Uber ride has raised questions about whether taking an under-the-table rideshare deal qualifies as socialist praxis.
Ethan “Emoney” Cohen (@emoneydoesit) shared a 96-second video recounting what he called “something crazy illegal” that happened during a recent ride. The video has received more than 7,600 views since it was posted.
The musician and content creator, who releases music on Spotify under his artist name Emoney, told the story straight to the camera from his living room.
“I called an Uber, get into the car, and the Uber driver was like, ‘Welcome, Ethan. I have a question I need to ask you,’” Ethan says. “And right away, I was like, ‘Whatever it is, yes. My life has been super boring recently, and I would love to get into some shenanigans with you.’”
According to Ethan, the driver then asked, “How do you feel about me canceling this ride and then still driving you to your destination? You pay me less money; I make more money; we both win.”
Ethan presented his acceptance of the offer as a blow against capitalism.
“Are you kidding me? What’s the catch? Of course, I would love to do this. I always talk about how much I hate billionaires, but now’s the chance for me to prove it and stick it to the guy who owns Uber and take money out of his pocket,” he says in the video.
Things only got more complicated from there, according to Ethan.
“And then on the way there, he’s like, ‘Oh, I forgot to tell you. My son, my son got suspended from school. So, I need to pick him up early from his high school,’” Ethan recounts.
“So, I don’t mind. So, it was a quick little 45-minute detour,” he adds.
The situation apparently became even more awkward when the driver’s son joined them.
“We pick up his son, and his son got in trouble for flashing his teacher. So, the whole time the Uber driver was like screaming at his son and his son was screaming back,” Ethan says.
In the middle of a family argument, Ethan tried to defuse things.
“And I’m just sitting there like, ‘Hey man, we’ve all done it.’ I’m trying to console him because I was a POS kid too. So, I was just trying to, you know, console the poor kid,” he says.
The video concludes with Ethan boasting that he stuck it to the man: “Anyways, we get to my destination, and then I, I literally saved $5 to fight billionaires. So, I’m doing my part. What are you doing?”
Ethan’s story evokes real debates about how gig economy workers are paid.
Research published in June by the pro-worker nonprofit the Worker Info Exchange (WIE) indicates that Uber’s commission rate has increased to around 40% on average, and sometimes as high as 65–70% per ride.
WIE’s work drew in part on research from Oxford University academics, which found that after Uber introduced dynamic algorithmic pay, gross hourly pay for drivers in the UK dropped from £22.20 to £19.06 ($30-$26) before operating costs, and Uber’s take rate jumped from a fixed 25% to half or more on some trips.
The same study says that dynamic pricing has made pay and work less predictable for drivers.
Ethan’s commenters suggested that many drivers are responding to this by taking their rides off the books.
Courtney Riggs claimed that it’s common practice, posting, “My husband drives for Uber and Lyft and anytime he gets a ride to Dallas (we’re 45 minutes away) he does this. They charge riders $75-$200 and pay my husband $20 at the low end or $30-$40 at the high end. At that rate, the trip isn’t worth the mileage or the gas, so he just bypasses the app and pockets the cash.”
Several commenters urged caution, citing safety concerns.
“Paying the additional money could allow u to have insurance coverage in case of a crash,” wrote MarkTheLawyer, adding, “Having insurance to pursue is worth the 5 bucks. The insurance companies will often fight claims but I hope they pay the woman you’re talking about.”
When a ride is canceled in the app, passengers do lose the protections that Uber offers.
According to its terms, Uber maintains tiered insurance coverage for riders using the app as intended.
The company offers $1 million in liability coverage when a driver is en route to a passenger or has one in the vehicle, but if the app says the ride has been canceled or the driver is offline, the only resort is the driver’s auto insurance.
However, most personal auto policies explicitly exclude coverage for what the industry terms “livery services,” meaning that in an off-the-app ride, both the driver and passenger could be without coverage.
Not everyone agreed with Ethan claiming the mantle of anti-capitalist activism. “You still hired a ride and participated in capitalism…” observed Mr Dave, Rags stang me.
User Piff pushed back, writing “But it went thru no middle man.”
Mr Dave retorted, “I’m not saying that’s not significantly better, but it’s just better capitalism.”
User Smakman agreed: “What you actually did was engaged in free market capitalism.”
Some commenters saw the encounter as evidence that a better world is possible. Sniperking187 wrote, “actually insane that we as a community haven’t just made our own ride share system. Imagine if we just had Uber without any money being taken away from the actual workers.”
In fact, worker-owned cooperative ride-sharing services have launched in several U.S. cities.
The Drivers Cooperative in New York City, launched in 2021, now has around 2,500 driver-owners who make 8–10% more per trip than they do with Uber and Lyft. This effort branched out to the Drivers Co-op Colorado, serving Denver, which launched in 2024 and claims to already represent more than 4,000 drivers with about 14,000 riders. Similar cooperatives have been organized in Minnesota, with expansion planned to more cities.
At the end of the day, Ethan agreed to pay cash for what was, in effect, an unlicensed taxi ride. The driver then took a significant detour, and Ethan traded 45 minutes of his life for a $5 discount.
It may not count as anti-capitalist activism, but viewers enjoyed a heck of a story.
As user nopenopenope summed it up: “You know what, hell yeah this is hilarious, love you for sharing this!!”
Motor1 reached out to Emoney via TikTok direct message. We’ll be sure to update this if he responds.
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