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The goal of regulation is to discourage traffic jams, fights, and the like on the side of the street caused by negotiation over price. With Uber you have the op
by jowiar 13y ago
The goal of regulation is to discourage traffic jams, fights, and the like on the side of the street caused by negotiation over price. With Uber you have the opportunity to see the price before pressing the button. Ideally, there are multiple Uber-like systems which will hold prices down, with a Kayak-like service to choose between them.
- wavefunction 13y agoI thought it was to protect the consumer from things like... "price gouging." I agree with your "ideal" situation being ideal, though I guess I expect that service pricing will be "protected business data."
- jowiar 13y agoThere's nothing wrong with charging high prices for things that are in high demand and low supply. That's what encourages more suppliers to enter the market. There are two major situations that regulation needs to protect consumers from - asymmetric information and monopolies. Taxis are a major example of the former - that negotiating on the street would create traffic problems, and getting into the cab, then negotiating would create a major imbalance of power in the negotiation. An example of the latter would be if Uber was the only player in the transportation market (market share > some large %) and could charge what they want, and then said something like "the only way to book one of our vehicles is through our app, and you cannot build a system which lets you book either an Uber vehicle or non-Uber vehicle."