I remember taxi drivers when I was a kid rarely complaining about getting underpaid; they seemed to feel that they were entrepreneurs or entrepreneur-adjacent a

I remember taxi drivers when I was a kid rarely complaining about getting underpaid; they seemed to feel that they were entrepreneurs or entrepreneur-adjacent and generally made enough to get by. Almost as if they were real contractors with the ability to negotiate for wages. But that doesn't forgive using regulatory capture to prevent anyone else from benefiting from the same things that helped you, that's just pulling the ladder up after you. Uber did fix the problem of people who would happily make money driving a taxi being unable to because of regulatory capture. They made much worse the problem of drivers making a living wage, and when the sugar rush finally ends and they ultimately have to raise prices you know that extra margin isn't going to go to make the drivers whole and bring their wages back up to what a taxi driver used to make. It's going to go into Uber's investors' pockets. Although personally I think Uber will just go the way of WeWork once people realize they own (close to) zero vehicles, have (close to) zero employed drivers, and lose money on every ride. What happens after that? Well, public transit has been gutted already so I guess... um... scooters?