By Reason TV
In May of 2011, Uber began operating in New York City. For the next roughly two and a half years, the taxi industry kept thriving. In November 2013, Medallion Financial, the publicly traded company that’s run by Andrew Murstein, saw its share price hit a thirteen-year high. But as more and more Uber cars took to the streets over the next year and a half, the stock plummeted, ultimately losing about half of its value.
The average number of trips taken in a cab each day has fallen and average farebox revenue has fallen. Taxi garages are jammed with parked cabs because they can’t find enough drivers to hire. They’d all rather go work for Uber.
“It really is remarkable how these monopolies that couldn’t be broken for decades were broken so quickly,” says Barro, “but I think it’s because of Uber moving first and saying, ‘we’re going show people how this thing can be different, and then we’ll have the fight over whether we want that different thing or not.'”
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Related Article: New York’s Taxi Cartel Is Collapsing. Now They Want A Bailout.
All small business is under assault.
Not that this usurious medallion thing was fair.
Not that the taxi industry couldn’t use some good old fashioned competition.
What’s not fair is this:
The rules change as a matter of convenience for all services, all business’.
These drivers had to conform to all this licensing for generations.
Then all the rules change, circumventing the expense of brick and mortar.
This type of thing has happened to new and used car business’ as well.
The dealers have to play by certain rules, then these new players (with big money lineage) enter the space, without the expense the established players have been adhering to for ever.
Obama defunded SBA (in the wake of the biggest expansion of government in US history).
You’ve got YELP! which is Fascist, big players who can afford ‘on line reputation’ firms benefit, while the model is about inflicting pain on small business owners so the will pay monthly vig to YELP! Their very stinky business model has been called extortion by most anyone who cares to look.
Yet, obviously the Feds have told the courts – ‘hands off’.
You’ve got ‘Operation Choke Point’ with banks reporting to Feds and banks shutting down small business’ for no reason (this happened to us after 25 years of perfect performance).
You’ve got Agenda 21’s assault on agriculture, especially the small operator.
You’ve got cities and counties across America who are ICLEI members (UN sponsored NGO) remaking main streets across the Country. Bribing municipalities with their ‘Complete Street’ model which is largely about picking winners and losers in what was a local, organic Free Market main street.
Sabotaging parking, access, etc..
The more you look, the more instruments you’ll find to undermine small business in America. Export the jobs, eliminate small business as much as possible.
Reduce us to a bunch of dependent serfs; out of money, out of ideas, out of options, out of choices.
This too is UN Agenda 21 Sustainable Development.
The globalist’s comprehensive blueprint that makes us…’unsustainable’.
Screw them and their smelly cabs with rude drivers!
This video by pro-Uber Reason, once again, is full of misunderstandings and spin.
The video starts off with a double standard. The video suggests that it is an ostentatious display for some NYC taxi boss to have Niki Menage perform at his son’s Baht Mitzvah. I guess only the great Kalanick (Uber CEO) can display wealth. If somebody from the taxi industry does it, then that means they are bad.
Again we see the attacks on the medallion system. Misunderstandings about the medallion system are the norm. The medallion system does two things. It controls the number of taxicabs in a given city and it allows for profit sharing within the industry. The medallion system has been a great source of middle-class wealth over the years. Where is the profit sharing at Uber? There is none. Uber gives us slaves and lords ONLY. Any extra consumer costs (it’s doubtful that there are any) due to the medallion system are there TO SUPPORT A MIDDLE CLASS. Driving a taxicab properly is SKILLED LABOR and should be encouraged by providing for an industry that adequately rewards its long time workers.
How many times does an angry looking taxicab driver need to be shown? How many times do the authors of this piece need to directly quote Uber’s propaganda by using the terms ‘medallion cartel’ and ‘taxicab monopoly?’ Listen, the medallion cartel is not the taxicab companies. The medallion cartel is your local City government. As far as the monopoly claims go; I don’t know about your city, but here in San Francisco, there are about 30 cab companies. How is that a monopoly?
In the video, some ignorant person talks about how the taxicab industry has been ‘broken.’ This guy needs to take a look at all the outstanding lawsuits against Uber and couple that with the fact that their track record in courts around the world is abysmal. Uber has not shown us jack squat and this is far from over. Uber will be completely vanquished.
All Uber did was front-run the taxi industry. Smartphone applications used in the public passenger vehicle for hire business should only be used to enhance taxicabs, but Uber and all their venture capital money came in like an unnecessary flood. We were going about integrating this technology before we were so rudely interrupted. In fact, if the San Francisco city government put out an adequate number of cabs and created an official city of San Francisco taxicab dispatch application, there would be no demand for any of this.
Best practices are embodied in TAXICABS. The only reason why we are messing around with anything else is Uber’s mountain of cash. This is irresponsible behavior by our governments. If you can believe it; our politicians have been bought. Watch out now, but Uber is just another crony capitalist phenomenon. That “feisty little startup” narrative was bunk two times. They’ve been hooked into the establishment all along. Uber is part and parcel of the establishment.
Uber is here to conquer and consolidate taxicab industries worldwide under a business model that provides them with all of the benefits and none of the responsibilities. Uber is wholly unnecessary and a negative for our quality of life.
All they’ve gotten so far are political victories. Uber needs to be repudiated in American courts of law.