Opinion | Caution, Uber and Lyft, wrecking taxis may turn out to be a multi-company pileup

Uber co-founder Ryan Graves rings a ceremonial bell for the ride-hailing company's initial public offering at the New York Stock Exchange May 10. By Megan McArdle Megan McArdle Columnist Bio Follow Columnist May 24 at 6:00 PM This week, the New York Times did something I would have thought impossible: They made New Yorkers feel bad for cabdrivers.

Uber and Lyft are discovering that the regulatory monopolies they smashed had existed for a reason. Before Uber’s 2009 launch, and Lyft’s a few years later, almost every sizable city tightly controlled its taxi market. Government commissions set fares and limited the supply of taxi licenses. Myriad justifications were offered for these regulations, but fundamentally they existed because without government intervention, no one would make any money.

Some cities did just that. But often, by the time the commissioners got around to it, Uber had acquired a rabid fan base, which the company wasn’t shy about weaponizing. Amazingly, improbably, Uber broke the taxi commissions — and then broke the people who owned those previously valuable taxi medallions, from individual driver-owners to the operators of taxi fleets.

That was the problem taxi medallions had been designed to solve. Drivers still didn’t make much money, because all you needed to get started in the business was a driver’s license. But the people who owned the right to drive were able to make a tidy living, with almost no downside risk. That’s why New York City taxi medallions got so valuable: Two decades of low-interest rates made them an attractive alternative to bonds offering yields in the low single digits.

Is the point that we should feel sorry for the medallion cartels? If so then I'm not feeling it. Try living in the suburbs of a metro area with a barely functional transit system and then tell me how we're now worse off.

Sounds like a piece from Unions

Death to uber and Lyft. Didn't your parents tell you not to get into cars with strangers.

Filing this under N, for No Shit Sherlock.

Lyft is more reliable than taxi's. I live outside the city core . Taxi drivers often dump their commitment to me for a fare closer by. So many times I've had to all dispatch a few times. Lyft always shows up. I bet I'm not the only one who never calls taxi any longer

Ask Michael Cohen.......

Nigeria Nigeria Latest News, Nigeria Nigeria Headlines

Similar News:You can also read news stories similar to this one that we have collected from other news sources.

Opinion | How Uber and Lyft drivers are using the companies' algorithms against themOpinion | Sabrina Hersi Issa: How Uber and Lyft drivers are using the companies' algorithms against them. - NBCNewsTHINK THINK Yeaa😙
Source: NBCNews - 🏆 10. / 86 Read more »

Uber and Lyft to turn the wheels on car ownership: industry expertsRide-hailing apps like those of Uber Technologies and Lyft Inc are expected to a... Not unless they improve safety We’re sharing everything else, why not? Addresses the big city parking issue too. winwin
Source: Reuters - 🏆 2. / 97 Read more »

Uber is a 'once in a generation company' but the stock is going nowhere, Susquehanna saysSusquehanna has a neutral rating on the stock and a price target of $42 per share. It was an opportunistic business that didn't try to solve a problem so much as it exploited a deficit. All businesses that do this will end in flames. Basic economic principles predicted this fate and I am dumbfounded why so much money was put into it. Stupid!!! Hey just like this generation!! Here's the simplest guide you'll ever read on how to buy stocks
Source: CNBC - 🏆 12. / 72 Read more »

Opinion | A German Company Cashes In on Emoji ManipulationOpinion: A German company, the Emoji Co. GmbH, claims it owns the word “emoji.”Now it’s cashing in on trademarks in every profitable merchandise category Who else saw this photo and thought of lsd The word 'emoji' comes from the romanization of the Japanese word 絵文字 (which means picture character). Crazy that a Japanese company had to pay a German one to use a literal Japanese word 🤔 Oh nice. Another Acacia situation. 😤
Source: WSJ - 🏆 98. / 63 Read more »