Hacker News Reader

Comment by rtpg | Hacker News Reader

How safe is it? I heard that one of the reasoning for the entire registration of taxi services was that a lot of unlicensed taxis were actually dangerous, and that enforcing registration greatly lowered the amount of crimes happening inside the taxis (at least reports of this).

View on HN

I think it's safe. But I'm not a lady. Even if I was a lady and was really concerned for my safety while riding cabs, why wouldn't I call a licenced taxi company instead and pay more for my safety? The problem with requiring everyone to be licenced is that you force customers who are less concerned about their safety to pay for those who are more concerned.

Even if you aren't concerned for your safety, you being safer can lead to a better life anyways (see car, health insurance).

So if I'm not concerned about my safety someone should force me to be concerned? On what grounds? Who gave that someone an authority to intrude into my personal life?

You can choose not to use these services. There are other forms of transportation.

That's not choice. You're saying I shouldn't be able to use unlicenced cabs because someone considers them unsafe. It's like saying I shouldn't be able visit websites a government considers dangerous, and if I don't like to read government approved websites, there are other ways to get information apart from the internet (which, incidentally, are more regulated).

Reply on news.ycombinator.com