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Massachusetts to tax ride-hailing apps, give the money to taxis

reuters.com

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Re: Massachusetts to tax ride-hailing apps, give the money to taxis

#61

Post by 0xFFC »

dsacco wrote: post #42
0xFFC wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I don't want to see cab drivers turn into homeless drifters This is wrong. This is exactly how they want you to think. Cab drivers are not going to become homeless or jobless, they will work(drive) for a new companies(I agree if market is healthy enough, which is not).But they frame the issue kind of like "losing job" and "becoming homeless" just because they don't want to change. (I said cab drivers because it is…

It doesn't make sense to say, "Except for [subset of policy a], I am 100% in favor of [policy a], but for [subset of policy a] I am 100% in favor of [policy b]." That's like saying, "Except for my student loans, I am 100% debt free." It muddles your point. Just a nit.

Honestly , no matter how much I think, I cannot understand how did you frame my sentence this way :

> Except for my student loans, I am 100% debt free

Re: Massachusetts to tax ride-hailing apps, give the money to taxis

#62

Post by xname2 »

acidburnNSA wrote: post #14
rev_bird wrote: post #2

This is a pretty surreal move: >The law says the money will help taxi businesses to adopt "new technologies and advanced service, safety and operational capabilities" and to support workforce development... [Larry Meister, manager of the Boston area's Independent Taxi Operator's Association] said the money could go toward improving a smartphone app his association has started using, or to other big needs. I'm not an…

I mostly agree with you, and I would have wholeheartedly agreed with you 2 weeks ago, but I just read a book ("Listen, Liberal" by Thomas Frank) that makes some interesting points about how liberals have shifted from representing working people to representing professionals, and to worshiping innovation. While free trade and disruptive technology is good for the professional class, it inherently increases inequality.…

Are uber drivers "working people"? Are some uber users "working people"?

Re: Massachusetts to tax ride-hailing apps, give the money to taxis

#63

Post by randyrand »

quickben wrote: post #3

Well, things should be equal. Why should a taxi service have to perform a regular vehicle inspection and a an uber driver be exempt from it? Either make the Uber driver go through regular inspections or cancel the regulation for the cabbies.

Taxi regulations were pushed by the taxi industry to keep out competitors. It's their own damn fault.

Re: Massachusetts to tax ride-hailing apps, give the money to taxis

#65

Post by randyrand »

yohoho22 wrote: post #54

> The 5-cent fee will be collected through the end of 2021. Then the taxi subsidy will disappear and the 20 cents will be split by localities and the state for five years. The whole fee will go away at the end of 2026.

ah the old 'temporary tax' we hear time to time.

I remember some story about a few WWII temporary taxes that are still taxing today.

Re: Massachusetts to tax ride-hailing apps, give the money to taxis

#67

Post by toomuchtodo »

yazaddaruvala wrote: post #51
toomuchtodo wrote: post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Working class folks care more about their jobs than Uber's profits (rightfully so).

There are more working class folks, who this disadvantages than advantages. I'm sure the people of Mass who use Uber, would look at this as an extra tax put onto them. And Uber will cost more. For example, when regulation (which was needed) around driver verification came out: I remember a very clear message on the Uber app about why the price of each ride went up $1.

I would absolutely love for someone to leak Uber's user demographic data. I find it hard to believe it's working class people regularly using it, and not just upper middle class professionals and above primarily (except on nights out to the bar; in that case I could see the demo skewed).

Re: Massachusetts to tax ride-hailing apps, give the money to taxis

#68

Post by yazaddaruvala »

xyzzy4 wrote: post #10
robbiep wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And by the big mac index, the cost of living in India is 50% less (at a minimum) than in the US. Direct price comparisons between countries are useless

It's not useless. If something is too expensive in one place (5x-10x in Massachusetts compared to India) then it's evidence of some serious problems. My own theory is that the immigration policies of the US prevent enough unskilled workers from filling the roads with lots of Uber drivers.

> then it's evidence of some serious problems.

There is still currently a human in the car. Human's wage's are hopefully in proportion to the cost of living.

Are you suggesting we actively force Uber drivers to compete for unlivable wages?

You must really like the idea of self driving cars :)

Re: Massachusetts to tax ride-hailing apps, give the money to taxis

#69

Post by kevin_thibedeau »

acidburnNSA wrote: post #56
dharmon wrote: post #47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The book The Box talks about longshoremen unions fighting the age of shipping containers and the unemployment it caused by eliminating the need for manually packing ships. The solution that worked best were unions that accepted this path was inevitable, and instead of insisting on setting fire to the ship, negotiated transition payments for soon-to-be unemployed longshoremen. Essentially phasing out their jobs, givin…

I like it. For self-driving trucks, someone suggested to me once that we could give all the truck drivers promotions to "logistics supervisors." They ride along and do paperwork and the trucking companies stop hiring for that position. I just feel like it's more likely that the trucking companies see that they can save money by firing them and tell them goodbye.

They will always need drivers just to stave off banditry and handle emergencies. What is likely is a single manned truck leading small convoys of automated machines.

Re: Massachusetts to tax ride-hailing apps, give the money to taxis

#70

Post by AndyNemmity »

Dylan16807 wrote: post #49
AndyNemmity wrote: post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Just googled Taxi Service. Uber is the third listing under Yellow Cab, and Discount Cab. Looking at Uber's SEO, they have a lot of listings like "Request taxi cabs from your phone with uberTAXI" on their home page in the source. 52 entries. Strange for a company that isn't a taxi company to advertise their taxis.

Wanting to show up when you search for taxi doesn't tell you if it's a taxi. Like a cable company showing up when you search DSL, it's not strange at all. UberTAXI gets you non-uber taxi cars, more or less. That's not their main service, and doesn't tell you whether their main service is a taxi service.

I don't get any cable companies that show up when I search DSL.
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