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Taxis and housing existed and where more afordable before those companies took over the market. If I make a company buy every hospital in the world you will th

by lomase 1y ago

Taxis and housing existed and where more afordable before those companies took over the market. If I make a company buy every hospital in the world you will think is essential, but is not. The hospitals did exist before.

coffeecoders 1y ago
Convenience, consistency, and global. They solved real pain points, even if the cost and ethics are now questionable. It’s like a software library that’s buggy and bloated but everyone depends on it because rewriting it from scratch is harder than dealing with its flaws.
- lomase 1y ago
  You start from a false premise, that we have now is better than before. Taxis were better than Ubers, bed&breakfast were better than AirBnB. Maybe you are just too young to know it. The only reason we moved to Uber is because it was half the price of taxis, because it was subsidized, not anymore.
  - coffeecoders 1y ago
    Uber and Airbnb solved real pain points: global availability, predictable, nice interfaces, cashless payments, reviews etc. These are the things small, local systems struggled to provide consistently. Also, my point isn't that the current system is objectively better. It's that scale and convenience created network effects that make it "essential" in practice, even if it’s buggy, slow, or worse in some respects.
    - lomase 1y ago
      [flagged]
  - HotHotLava 1y ago
    Taxis and B&Bs and Hotels all still exist and compete with Uber and AirBnB. Even at the same price there are valid reasons why many people prefer an Uber over a Taxi, in particular the predictable pricing and globally consistent UI.
    - lomase 1y ago
      Uber changes the pricing depending on the demmand. Taxis can't do that, they are regulated by law in most of the west. Predictable my ass. You have been lied to. And btw all over the world you rise up your arm, and the taxi stops, I think that is a pretty consistent user interface that anybody in the world can understand. I have to help my aunt each time she needs an Uber.
      - HotHotLava 1y ago
        Please don't pretend to be dumb, "predictable" in this context means that you know the final price of the trip before you start the journey, instead of having an odometer. And randomly hoping for a taxi to drive by maybe works as long as you exclusively travel between airports, train stations, and downtowns of major cities, but if you're even slightly more remote than that you'll have to call or use some random app to get the Taxi to pick you up.

by lomase 1y ago

coffeecoders 1y ago

Convenience, consistency, and global. They solved real pain points, even if the cost and ethics are now questionable. It’s like a software library that’s buggy and bloated but everyone depends on it because rewriting it from scratch is harder than dealing with its flaws.

lomase 1y ago
You start from a false premise, that we have now is better than before. Taxis were better than Ubers, bed&breakfast were better than AirBnB. Maybe you are just too young to know it. The only reason we moved to Uber is because it was half the price of taxis, because it was subsidized, not anymore.
- coffeecoders 1y ago
  Uber and Airbnb solved real pain points: global availability, predictable, nice interfaces, cashless payments, reviews etc. These are the things small, local systems struggled to provide consistently. Also, my point isn't that the current system is objectively better. It's that scale and convenience created network effects that make it "essential" in practice, even if it’s buggy, slow, or worse in some respects.
  - lomase 1y ago
    [flagged]
- HotHotLava 1y ago
  Taxis and B&Bs and Hotels all still exist and compete with Uber and AirBnB. Even at the same price there are valid reasons why many people prefer an Uber over a Taxi, in particular the predictable pricing and globally consistent UI.
  - lomase 1y ago
    Uber changes the pricing depending on the demmand. Taxis can't do that, they are regulated by law in most of the west. Predictable my ass. You have been lied to. And btw all over the world you rise up your arm, and the taxi stops, I think that is a pretty consistent user interface that anybody in the world can understand. I have to help my aunt each time she needs an Uber.
    - HotHotLava 1y ago
      Please don't pretend to be dumb, "predictable" in this context means that you know the final price of the trip before you start the journey, instead of having an odometer. And randomly hoping for a taxi to drive by maybe works as long as you exclusively travel between airports, train stations, and downtowns of major cities, but if you're even slightly more remote than that you'll have to call or use some random app to get the Taxi to pick you up.