My sense of Uber has been a company using technology innovatively to provide a much better user experience, while using currently existing but idle resources (t

My sense of Uber has been a company using technology innovatively to provide a much better user experience, while using currently existing but idle resources (the cars and drivers that serve customers on Uber but otherwise don't for various reasons, reasons Uber has rendered irrelevant, hence the resistance they've seen). But if they need to subsidize their drivers or customers, what does that say about their value proposition? To me, it makes them just another company using mundane, old school tactics to outdo their competition. Medallions and subsidies are old school tactics. One keeps new players out. The other throws old players out. Neither has anything to do with the value you bring to the table.