18. The success of the referendum orga nized by Uber and Lyft to preserve their ex-tremely precarious model in California in 2020 illustrates the limits of an idyllic visionof direct democracy, as well as the need to reconceive a salarial status that makes it pos-sible to reconcile protection and autonomy.

Our notion that everyone is equal before the law,for instance, originally traces back to the idea that everyone is equalbefore the king, or emperor: since if one man is invested withabsolute power, then obviously everyone else is equal incomparison.