Working hard and for longer hours might not translate into more earnings in every profession for a regular working professional in India. In a now-viral Reddit post titled “Ola & Uber destroyed India’s future – might get sued for speaking this,” user Ok-Swim-3767 has triggered a fierce debate over India’s gig economy and its impact on workers.
The post allegedly questions the glorification of hard work in a system that appears increasingly rigged.
“I used to think hard work solves everything. Until I met someone who worked 14 hours a day… and still couldn’t pay rent,” the post begins. The author recounts a conversation with an Ola driver who, despite relentless hours and no time off, was forced to borrow money just to pay his daughter’s school fees.
“He wasn’t lazy. He wasn’t unskilled. He was stuck in a system built for extraction,” the post continues, highlighting the conditions faced by many ride-hailing drivers who must pay for their own fuel, take on high-interest loans disguised as “financial inclusion,” and work under opaque algorithms.
“Their income? Controlled by an algorithm they don’t even understand,” the user wrote, pointing fingers at Indian startups that claim to be nation builders while scaling valuations and eyeing IPOs. “The real hustle isn’t in the streets. It’s in the boardrooms.”
The post concludes with a broader critique: “So no — hard work isn’t always enough. Let’s stop glorifying the grind. Let’s start questioning the system. Because success isn’t just about mindset. It’s about power. Access. And who gets to rewrite the rules.”
The thread quickly filled with passionate responses. One user called the ‘hard work leads to success’ mantra a “false hope,” arguing that success depends more on “being at the right place at the right time and getting access to the right resources.”
Another, however, challenged the narrative: “What’s preventing him from moving to Rapido? How long was he in the Ola/Uber system? Was he there in 2010–2017? If yes, what did he do with the enormous incentive he and others earned?”
Others pointed to the complexity of the issue, with one user suggesting that while gig work may be exploitative, it still fills a gap in a country with limited employment options. “Gig economy is the last hope of the masses to make a living due to lack of better opportunities. It hasn’t destroyed any future because there wasn’t any bright future to begin with,” they wrote.
Some questioned the emotional framing altogether. “Don’t buy into the borrowing money for daughter’s education thingy,” one user said. “Usually they make as much as a mid-level software engineer, but they have other debts from loan sharks which plunge them into a sinkhole and poverty. Don’t blame Ola/Uber or gig economy. Our country would have been worse off without it.”