Keller @ Large: Uber Taxi Showdown Shows Culture's Lost Control
BOSTON (CBS) - Monday, it was a job action by Cambridge taxi drivers protesting the cannibalization of their business by Uber drivers. Tuesday, it's a protest in Braintree by Uber drivers and customers against proposed regulations they see as targeting their business.
This sort of thing has been happening all over the world, and it's not hard to feel the pain of both sides.
If you've ever driven a cab, you know it can be grueling work with little profit margin for the drivers. Their agony at being squeezed to death by this new competition is understandable.
But Uber and other ridesharing drivers work hard too, and their popularity speaks to the convenience and, in many cases, cost-saving of their business model, unburdened by an antiquated medallion system.
In markets that have not been distorted beyond recognition by governmental micro-management, this sort of conflict would ultimately resolve itself.
If you had the only hardware store in town and then a competitor moved in across the street with lower prices and better service, you would either have to beat their service and prices or find other ways to keep your market share.
Outside of ensuring that your ride is in a safe vehicle with a driver who's not an axe murderer, I can't see what else government's role in all this should be.
But in the taxi/Uber showdown, both sides want government to step in and change the rules to benefit them.
And that is a sign of a marketplace – and a culture – that's lost control of itself, to the detriment of all involved.
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