Thursday, April 16, 2015

How Uber is attacking the American Dream in New York City.

As crummy a job as it is, taxi driving in New York City has been a pathway to the middle class and the American Dream in a way that driving for Uber and Lyft could never be.



You see, with Uber and Lyft,  the driver can never even dream of having a stake in the business, let alone a million dollar medallion. No, the equity, the ownership is not for the Uberdriver, it's for Wall Street. In this scenario the Uberdriver is permanent Untermensch. Here in contrast is the success story of thousands of taxi drivers:
Starting out, he shaped up at a taxi fleet day after day. He proved to be reliable and responsible, so he was assigned a steady car. Now he doesn't have to shape up hoping for a car to work with. Over time he buys a taxi vehicle and leases a medallion. He gets a partner and double shifts the taxi. He's making a bit more money this way and he saves up for a down payment on a medallion. He double shifts the taxicab. He's a business man now. If he has the guts and ambition he gets another medallion. The sky becomes the limit. This model infuriated Wall Street. Their mouthpieces at The New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Crains and so on raged because taxi drivers had created the world's best investment, the New York City taxi medallion.

By giving Uber unfair and illegal advantages such as control over the metered Uber fare and carte blanche to the Uber and Lyft fleets to violate State safety laws against the use of electronic devices while driving, the David Yassky's of the world set out to destroy the dream and put the taxi driver in his place. Yassky and Chabbra got rewarded with jobs at Uber and Lyft. Finally the taxi industry leaders are turning to the courts. The banks that finance the taxi business are also getting into the act. Time will tell...

3 comments:

  1. In New York, a bill before the city council would restrict surge pricing to 100 percent of the normal fare. Policymakers are calling the practice “price gouging” and want to protect consumers from it.

    Jack,
    Uber clone

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. In order to survive and maintain their vehicles Goobers must have surge fares and also they have to take illegal street hails. The TLC is constantly on them and has seized hundreds of Uber vehicles. With the Sherpa Share heat map cabbies can find out where and when Uber and Lyft are charging extra. It's then easy to grab Uber customers who don't want to pay the s urge.

      Delete
    2. In order to survive and maintain their vehicles Goobers must have surge fares and also they have to take illegal street hails. The TLC is constantly on them and has seized hundreds of Uber vehicles. With the Sherpa Share heat map cabbies can find out where and when Uber and Lyft are charging extra. It's then easy to grab Uber customers who don't want to pay the s urge.

      Delete