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Open thread March 22, 2016

Dan Crawford | March 22, 2016 7:09 am

Tags: open thread Comments (4) | Digg Facebook Twitter |
4 Comments
  • Denis Drew says:
    March 22, 2016 at 11:07 am

    Thoughts in the middle of the night: how to wreak Uber world-wide (disclosure: 28 year taxi driver here — NY, Chi, SF).

    How about surreptitiously adding meters to some cars that are already Uber. We can hide them in the glove compartment at first — not there to use, just to make a psychological statement when we are ready — to make the perfect parallel between unregulated livery (which most seem to tolerate) and unregulated taxi (which no one will tolerate).

    Back in the 70s in the Bronx, some gypsies hid their meters in the glove compartment — or so I heard — even though the mayor told police to let us pick up outside yellow cab territory (below 110th street in Manhattan) we could still get tickets occasionally for things like “unauthorized rate sign.” I picked up about a dozen such tickets.

    BTW, Bronx so-called “gypsies” had livery plates, chauffeur’s licensed drivers and insurance rates twice as high as taxi insurance.

    Uber would kick us out if they knew about the hidden meters. Once we started using the meters we would be gone from Uber the same day.

    Point would be a legal/psychological one. We would be no more illegal picking up by hail than picking up by central dispatch. How can the municipality in good conscience ticket one and not the other? Might even be able to sue the city in court for equal protection of the law or something (I’m just starting to mull this over).

    Be best for “freedom” pickup-by-hail drivers — i.e., with cars with non-commercial license plates and insurance — for drivers to have regular taxi licenses (called chauffeur’s licenses in Illinois) to cover public safety. In New York City every central dispatch (livery) pickup has to be recorded — that’s the passenger’s protection because they can always go back and find out who the driver was. Uber fills that requirement automatically (digitally).

    Since we are just making a point it would be best to, at first at least, only make “parody” pickups. Parody is protected by the First Amendment. For example, set up other drivers as ersatz passengers to pick up by hail (carrying some visible sign this is parody) at some high visibility spot — ideally if you ask me, like City Hall. TV media have to be interested. Media loves “gotcha” stuff — like what is the legal difference between pickup-by-dispatch without commercial plates and insurance and multi-year inspections — and — pickup-by-hail without commercial plates and insurance and multi-year inspections.

    Just because some municipalities have authorized some Uber pickups at the airport for instance doesn’t relieve Uber cars of all other obligations to meet commercial requirements. Otherwise why do legit limos still bother to go to al the trouble — which in Chicago includes livery drivers having the same chauffeurs’ licenses required of taxi drivers.

    The point is, however we play with it, to make the maximum psychological impact — to make as plain as possible that Uber is operating outside the law — and — if livery can continue to operate with impunity outside regulations in the face of this glaring comparison, then, maybe eventually unregulated taxis can realistically threaten to do so too. Gotcha!

  • EMichael says:
    March 22, 2016 at 11:07 am

    Bill Maher explains my greatest fear.

  • Denis Drew says:
    March 23, 2016 at 11:24 am

    Kansas Tax Cuts: A Closer Look

    https://youtu.be/xliMwipXoiA

    Hat tip to Barry Ritholtz

  • beene says:
    March 23, 2016 at 4:05 pm

    Cross posted from NC.

    Michael Hudson and Chris Hedges: The Real World Cost of Turning Classical Economics Upside Down

    http://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2016/03/michael-hudson-and-chris-hedges-the-real-world-cost-of-turning-classical-economics-upside-down.html

    Days of Revolt: How We Got to Junk Economics

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