> I am a person who still rides taxis [out of principle]… I wouldn’t dare risk life and limb in an Airbnb across town You seem very risk adverse and pro-establ

> I am a person who still rides taxis [out of principle]… I wouldn’t dare risk life and limb in an Airbnb across town You seem very risk adverse and pro-establishment. Your perspective is a bit of an edge case, as demonstrated by the enormous value people find in Uber and AirBnB. I’m old enough to have lived with the taxi system for a couple decades when it was the only game in town(s) - it was awful. The few times I’ve had to ride a taxi lately, they’ve been noticeably better than they were back in the day — and that is entirely a consequence of competitive pressure. The taxi business was a textbook case of oligopolies protected from any free market pressure and the inevitable shitty quality that results from such. Cry all you want about Uber’s downsides, but the taxis are now better because of Uber. Any proposal to go back to a taxi system exclusive of ride-sharing should, I think, find a way to avoid the market protection and rent-seeking racket from local governments. Even Uber hasn’t been wholly immune from this (e.g. the early airport allowances). AirBnB is kind of a different thing than Uber, but it’s nice to have systems that enable options from the institutions/corporations, and that enable private parties to conduct commercial transactions with other private parties. In principal I’m for more of that resource leverage.