Practical Morality and the Platform Economy: Evaluating Uber and Grab

Shahid Bolsen introduces a five-question Islamic framework for evaluating any company or business model — and applies it directly to Uber and Grab. Neither passes. But the talk doesn't stop at critique. Bolsen works through a set of concrete, structurally viable reforms to Grab specifically: a capped commission model, a driver hardship fund, an equity program, a drivers' council, and a permanent community endowment. The argument throughout is that doing right by workers isn't in tension with running a profitable business. It's the same thing, correctly understood. We don't need imagination for any of this. We just need memory.