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    Today is an Uber/Lyft driver strike. Don't cross the picket line!

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      Is that just in the US coz I've just used the service and didn't see any placards?

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        Includes the UK

        It is sort of hard for them to do a picket, which is part of their point.

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          Ah. Looks like I used a couple of scabs.

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            If it wasn't for Twitter, I wouldn't know about it, and wouldn't you know--Uber and Lyft seem to be offering some big incentives for customers to use the services today. Most people will probably just see a promotion in an email from them and have no idea about the strike.

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              Meanwhile, at Lyft...


              https://www.indy100.com/article/twit...-viral-8908506


              And formally

              and for the record, neither Lyft nor Über are cab rides.

              They are parasites trying to put both PHVs and the growlers out of business and out of work.

              Fuck 'em.



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                Not the most successful stock market debut for Uber.

                I can't help wonder if Uber is a another Theranos, albeit a non-fraudulent one.

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                  I don't see how that can be right. Uber has a product that exists and is hugely popular. It may not have a workable business model, and it might be comically overpriced, but it has a very heavily used product.

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                    I'm not sure what a non-fraudulent Theranos is. Theranos isn't noteworthy for anything but the fraud.

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                      That was my issue as well

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                        My feeling is that their current model cannot sustain a company the size of Uber; in other words, the whole business model is duff. Drivers can't earn a living wage and Uber can't make a profit.

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                          Originally posted by Stumpy Pepys View Post
                          My feeling is that their current model cannot sustain a company the size of Uber; in other words, the whole business model is duff. Drivers can't earn a living wage and Uber can't make a profit.
                          Cue Windsor Davies


                          Mins you, by the time it hits the buffers you can be sure the principals have fucked off with all the money leaving the staff and the people sucked in to it to pick up the pieces or carry the debt.

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                            On Uber's profitability, or lack thereof

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                              That article is very good. Very long, but it pretty comprehensively dismantles the idea of Uber as anything other than a ludicrous enterprise with no right to exist.

                              The money paragraph:

                              Uber’s market entry has in fact confirmed all of the major economic justifications for taxi regulation. Unlimited market entry has created ruinous overcapacity, so that no one can make money, and otherwise viable operators get driven out of business. Uber clearly undersupplied safety, insurance, and basic consumer protec­tions relative to even the minimal levels regulators had required. In pursuit of revenue maximization, Uber pricing reduces major exter­nal public benefits such as the ability of lower-income citizens to reach jobs poorly served by transit. Taxi regulations provided a rough compromise between legitimate competing interests, administered by officials accountable to voters. Uber is solely focused on the objective of private capital accumulation.

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                                It is indeed excellent.

                                I was previously unaware of the journal and am rather surprised that something aligned with US "conservatism" could publish such a strong piece.

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                                  Originally posted by ursus arctos View Post
                                  It is indeed excellent.

                                  I was previously unaware of the journal and am rather surprised that something aligned with US "conservatism" could publish such a strong piece.
                                  Not convinced.

                                  I read it as a threat to investment from the establishment - a bubble which would threaten the already financially secure.

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                                    Not convinced of what?

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                                      He thinks US conservatives are shilling for 'big taxi' out of naked self-interest.

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                                        Originally posted by ursus arctos View Post
                                        Not convinced of what?
                                        That a journal so entwined with US conservativism would not be entirely supportive of what looks like a scam to part the marks from their cash?

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                                          Not a clue

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                                            I am pretty sure most of the wealthy folk have already found a way out, as has been covered at length by plenty of hedging action and exploratory articles on how it is OK.

                                            I think there is little need to look further than a conservative journal being happy to pitch "LOOK AT THESE DUMB KIDS RUINING THINGS"

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                                              The Koch Brothers are dumb kids?

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                                                I was more thinking the trashing a Silicon Valley company. The analysis is a great read.

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                                                  Ah, yes, I can see that working as an elevator pitch.

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                                                    Not paying a living wage isn’t going to prevent Uber and Lyft from signing up drivers. Lots of people are desperate for a side-hustle because their regular job also pays shit.

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