Sounds like the author has more money than time — which is not an insult, just a condition. For such people, Uber is a great service, like the others that allow

Sounds like the author has more money than time — which is not an insult, just a condition. For such people, Uber is a great service, like the others that allow one to pay for an increase in convenience and pleasantness. For people who have less money and don't care quite as much about such intangibles as rudeness, the savings are likely worthwhile. Uber is under attack as being illegal. Why would a society that has created a product so clearly superior ever challenge it as being illegal? It's not being "challenged" as being illegal, is it, though? The laws as written are simply being enforced — with some laxity in many places. And it was two different groups, not just one "society," that created the product and the laws under which it is illegal. Those laws will change, but it takes time, during which the service remains technically illegal. Marijuana was technically illegal here in Seattle until very recently, but the police chief publicly said it was the department's lowest priority. That's a tacit disavowal of the law in anticipation of it being changed — and I suspect it will be that way with Uber as well for some time, except where the laws prohibiting it are particularly strong.