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> Uber's business model is based on throwing VC money at lawyers that can keep local administration at bay and let them freely ignore the law. Meanwhile, they t
by Thriptic 11y ago
> Uber's business model is based on throwing VC money at lawyers that can keep local administration at bay and let them freely ignore the law. Meanwhile, they try to paint themselves as a white knight going against the Evil Taxi Mafia. It erodes trust people have in the rule of law.
That's fair, but if there was trust in local government and it was doing its job well then there wouldn't be such overwhelming popular support for Uber to begin with. Many licensed taxi services allowed by local governments provide terrible service, and local governments frequently show no interest in improving quality or lowering barriers to entry for new competition as long as they are collecting large amounts of money from medallion sales. This is people voting with their wallets and telling government they don't like the ramifications of existing regulations.
- TeMPOraL 11y agoI agree. Of course the issue isn't binary, it's additive. Uber is just one of the many forces that are now destabilizing the relationship between people and the government (many of them are of government's own doing). But just because the house is already on fire, doesn't mean you should be free to pour gasoline into it. The thing is, Uber isn't even really innovative. In Europe, we had a (arguably slow-going) process of reforming taxi laws going on for years. There were transportation upstarts that tackled taxi regulations through legal channels and in many places, my own country included, they managed to keep themselves on the market. Whatever tension there was between them and taxi companies got resolved in courts, regulations were updated and everyone was better off. But then Uber came and basically said, "fuck regulations, we have money to burn, what you're going to do?".