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Comment by lnxg33k1 | Hacker News Reader

Ride sharing apps are shit, especially because of the prices, like are you really suggesting that workers need to be paid like shit without benefits and social security, because you want to go out even if you can't afford it? If taxis and means that allow people to live with dignity for their work are too expensive, then don't go out, go out less often, find a better job

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You got to be kidding ! I would say Taxis are shit. It's not like taxi drivers are leading stellar lives in their mansions. Most of them are struggling to make ends meet, while benefiting the taxi union or whatever shit that runs the monopoly. How is this any different from Uber/Lyft. At least, here you have an option you can drive for multiple ride share without having to fork out your kidney for a deposit at the taxi union.

Local transportation is a basic service. Ideally, your taxpayer money goes into providing one. But we all know how inefficient that is, especially in areas with low population density. So, short of that, Uber and Lyft are the next best thing to happen in transportation. Will that increase binge drinking, yes, so be it. So be it, because people who binge drink will do it anyway. If they don't drink at a bar they will drink at home. The correlation of binge drinking to the availability of ride hailing needs to be questioned.

Taxis are expensive mostly because of the monopolies. You are basically arguing that it's ok they are expensive. You argue that the group of people should be allowed to monopolize as elemental activity as providing safe transportation and price it however high they like. And the rest of us should just accept it and either do without access to safe transportation or struggle even more in our lives than we do to afford it. Just so a group of monopolist can earn money off of us that they couldn't have if they didn't manage to write their little monopoly into the law.

I know driving for Uber is not really a stellar job. But some people do it because that's the best they can do at the moment. They could never afford to drive a taxi. They could never be able to pay the dues for entering the monopoly. They would have to undertake even worse job.

The problem is not that those jobs pay little and provide no security. The problem is that people who decide to take those jobs are left without help to such a degree that they take them.

Introduce basic income and look how the conditions of ride-share drivers improve when they have a choice and some bargaining power.

I sort of agree that it's like a race to the bottom. It's not necessarily easy to find a higher paying job though. And someone has to fill the shitty jobs, so the real solution is worker protection policy like unions, minimum wage, and international trade asymmetries.

> are you really suggesting that workers need to be paid like shit without benefits and social security

Where did I suggest that?

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