So are more people paying for rides these days? Or are these “gigs” just taking food off the table of people who were working in the industry before the wonderful ridesharing technology came along and knocked down the “barriers to entry”? In other words, how many traditional taxi drivers have been shafted by punk kids ferrying people around in their Corollas for weekend beer money? As usual, these “technical innovations” have dark sides to them. The Silicon Valley types and their fat-cat investors get rich(er) but somebody much further down the food chain gets eaten alive.
This is called “creative destruction,” and is a hallmark of free market capitalism. As opposed to the crony capitalism represented by the traditional taxi cartel, which consistently worked and lobbied to minimize supply and extract higher than necessary prices from riders.
So are more people paying for rides these days? Or are these “gigs” just taking food off the table of people who were working in the industry before the wonderful ridesharing technology came along and knocked down the “barriers to entry”? In other words, how many traditional taxi drivers have been shafted by punk kids ferrying people around in their Corollas for weekend beer money? As usual, these “technical innovations” have dark sides to them. The Silicon Valley types and their fat-cat investors get rich(er) but somebody much further down the food chain gets eaten alive.
This is called “creative destruction,” and is a hallmark of free market capitalism. As opposed to the crony capitalism represented by the traditional taxi cartel, which consistently worked and lobbied to minimize supply and extract higher than necessary prices from riders.