4 ms·

The article has nothing to do with company-vs-regulated marketplace. It has to do with how horrible the government ideas were so far. If the city of Nevada wrot

The article has nothing to do with company-vs-regulated marketplace. It has to do with how horrible the government ideas were so far. If the city of Nevada wrote an iPhone app for rating cabs and the cabs had to display their stars, it would be better any of the other hilarious ideas they've come up with. Of course, the article implies they could have let Uber compete with the taxis like in so many other places, but the point is that 'due process' failed in this case, so even imperfect company would be better than that.

Nursie 12y ago
>> If the city of Nevada wrote an iPhone app for rating cabs and the cabs had to display their stars I don't think consumer ratings are that great a plan. I can see from the article that all of those ideas are pretty awful. But making a cabbie display ratings from consumers rather than a ratings agency is open to all sorts of abuse. Here in the UK a restaurant has to display its food hygiene rating on the door. This is a the result of a real assessment by an expert and as such is useful information. Unlike, say, a tripadvisor rating, which is more or less useless (5 stars! So much fun! I really enjoyed the baked rat and whatever that crunchy brown thing was in my lasagne!)
- philwelch 12y ago
  It's horrifying how you think government regulators are inherently smarter and more knowledgable than ordinary customers, who you apparently think are idiots.
  - henrikschroder 12y ago
    In the example of the hygiene rating, the government regulators at least have the possibility of being fair and using objective standards for evaluating and measuring a large number of restaurants against each other. If it's left up to customers, it's completely subjective, all the time. It's not that customers are idiots, it's that the wisdom of the crowds is often wrong.
    - Demiurge 12y ago
      Yeah, when it's something like hygiene or nuclear reactor maintenance. When it's something like customer service, wisdom of the crowds is what counts.
  - Nursie 12y ago
    It's horrifying to me that my food safety might be left up to what is effectively a popularity contest, when there are objective criteria that can be used. I'm not really sure how this maps on to cabs, mind.
    - philwelch 12y ago
      > I'm not really sure how this maps on to cabs, mind. Well it was your analogy, so I think we can both agree it was a poor one.
      - Nursie 12y ago
        I suppose so. The commonality was the idea of forcing display, which I can really only see being a good idea for objective measures. The article is talking about objective measures too - the problem it's trying to address is naive customers being taken the long way round. I don't think satisfaction ratings will actually help there. Secret riders and driver bans might though.

Nursie 12y ago

>> If the city of Nevada wrote an iPhone app for rating cabs and the cabs had to display their stars I don't think consumer ratings are that great a plan. I can see from the article that all of those ideas are pretty awful. But making a cabbie display ratings from consumers rather than a ratings agency is open to all sorts of abuse. Here in the UK a restaurant has to display its food hygiene rating on the door. This is a the result of a real assessment by an expert and as such is useful information. Unlike, say, a tripadvisor rating, which is more or less useless (5 stars! So much fun! I really enjoyed the baked rat and whatever that crunchy brown thing was in my lasagne!)

philwelch 12y ago
It's horrifying how you think government regulators are inherently smarter and more knowledgable than ordinary customers, who you apparently think are idiots.
- henrikschroder 12y ago
  In the example of the hygiene rating, the government regulators at least have the possibility of being fair and using objective standards for evaluating and measuring a large number of restaurants against each other. If it's left up to customers, it's completely subjective, all the time. It's not that customers are idiots, it's that the wisdom of the crowds is often wrong.
  - Demiurge 12y ago
    Yeah, when it's something like hygiene or nuclear reactor maintenance. When it's something like customer service, wisdom of the crowds is what counts.
- Nursie 12y ago
  It's horrifying to me that my food safety might be left up to what is effectively a popularity contest, when there are objective criteria that can be used. I'm not really sure how this maps on to cabs, mind.
  - philwelch 12y ago
    > I'm not really sure how this maps on to cabs, mind. Well it was your analogy, so I think we can both agree it was a poor one.
    - Nursie 12y ago
      I suppose so. The commonality was the idea of forcing display, which I can really only see being a good idea for objective measures. The article is talking about objective measures too - the problem it's trying to address is naive customers being taken the long way round. I don't think satisfaction ratings will actually help there. Secret riders and driver bans might though.