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Uber's Failure in Japan

disruptingjapan.com

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Re: Uber's Failure in Japan

#131

Post by yummyfajitas »

zyx321 wrote: post #130
yummyfajitas wrote: post #121

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm confused what public roads have to do with anything. Does this mean you oppose regulation of private acts happening off the public roads? For example, if I want to employ people in a racist manner and pay them $3/hour in the privacy of my own bedroom, that's ok? Or perhaps if the democratic will of the people decides that blacks must use a separate but equal set of public roads, that's also OK? My only point is t…

No, you are perfectly happy to ignore the democratic will of the people when it leads to policies you dislike.

Correct. I favor ignoring the democratic will of the people and protecting individual rights. I make no pretenses about this, and I think the tendency of democracies to violate individual rights is one of their deep flaws.

I'm just pointing out that either a) you favor laws against gay marriage since the democratic will of the people supports them (and similarly segregation in the south in 1969) or b) your appeals to the democratic will of the people are dishonest. Which is it?

Re: Uber's Failure in Japan

#132

Post by zyx321 »

yummyfajitas wrote: post #131
zyx321 wrote: post #130

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No, you are perfectly happy to ignore the democratic will of the people when it leads to policies you dislike.

Correct. I favor ignoring the democratic will of the people and protecting individual rights. I make no pretenses about this, and I think the tendency of democracies to violate individual rights is one of their deep flaws. I'm just pointing out that either a) you favor laws against gay marriage since the democratic will of the people supports them (and similarly segregation in the south in 1969) or b) your appeals to…

Are we talking about the "gay marriage" kind of gay marriage, or the "exposing people to the single biggest threat to life and limb, without telling them that you don't have insurance" kind of gay marriage?

Either way, I guess you caught me. I'm a giant hypocrite. I am of course quite angry at you for exposing my terrible secret. Fortunately for me, you are a supporter of individual rights against all laws and public consensus who will gladly support my right to hit you in the face with a piece of rebar.

Re: Uber's Failure in Japan

#133

Post by yummyfajitas »

zyx321 wrote: post #132
yummyfajitas wrote: post #131

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Correct. I favor ignoring the democratic will of the people and protecting individual rights. I make no pretenses about this, and I think the tendency of democracies to violate individual rights is one of their deep flaws. I'm just pointing out that either a) you favor laws against gay marriage since the democratic will of the people supports them (and similarly segregation in the south in 1969) or b) your appeals to…

Are we talking about the "gay marriage" kind of gay marriage, or the "exposing people to the single biggest threat to life and limb, without telling them that you don't have insurance" kind of gay marriage? Either way, I guess you caught me. I'm a giant hypocrite. I am of course quite angry at you for exposing my terrible secret. Fortunately for me, you are a supporter of individual rights against all laws and public…

Who says I oppose all laws?

I simply said "democratic will of the people" is a terrible justification for a law and can be used to justify all sorts of horrible things.

Similarly, on the safety issues which you bring up, I think you are also being hypocritical. If regulating safety is your goal, then either you should a) support banning gay sex, which is extremely unsafe and spreads disease to unwilling participants, or b) it's just another cheap excuse to pass laws against people you simply don't like.

Re: Uber's Failure in Japan

#134

Post by walshemj »

mikeash wrote: post #117
walshemj wrote: post #76

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Is calling rather then messing about with an app so much harder? It takes me 20-30 seconds to call and order a cab in the UK

Yes. You need to figure out your address or cross streets instead of having your phone give your position with three meters of accuracy, you have to wait if the operator is busy with something else, you have no record of your request if they forget about you, the ETAs are often completely made up, you have no way to track your car and know when it's about to arrive, and get no identifying information about the car or…

Posibly the taxi companies need to invest in some basic sms/gps tech.

How it works for me is:

ring ring "hi can I have a cab to location I am at location y"

Dispatcher asks my name and "says that will be 10 min" I get an sms when the cab has been dispatched and another when it arives that says ita a silver priaus licene plate no xxxxx.

Re: Uber's Failure in Japan

#135

Post by mikeash »

walshemj wrote: post #134
mikeash wrote: post #117

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes. You need to figure out your address or cross streets instead of having your phone give your position with three meters of accuracy, you have to wait if the operator is busy with something else, you have no record of your request if they forget about you, the ETAs are often completely made up, you have no way to track your car and know when it's about to arrive, and get no identifying information about the car or…

Posibly the taxi companies need to invest in some basic sms/gps tech. How it works for me is: ring ring "hi can I have a cab to location I am at location y" Dispatcher asks my name and "says that will be 10 min" I get an sms when the cab has been dispatched and another when it arives that says ita a silver priaus licene plate no xxxxx.

Yes, taxi companies could definitely improve. Many American taxi companies have become completely complacent about any new technology. In DC, they're still struggling to implement credit card payments!

Re: Uber's Failure in Japan

#136

Post by zyx321 »

yummyfajitas wrote: post #133
zyx321 wrote: post #132

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Are we talking about the "gay marriage" kind of gay marriage, or the "exposing people to the single biggest threat to life and limb, without telling them that you don't have insurance" kind of gay marriage? Either way, I guess you caught me. I'm a giant hypocrite. I am of course quite angry at you for exposing my terrible secret. Fortunately for me, you are a supporter of individual rights against all laws and public…

Who says I oppose all laws? I simply said "democratic will of the people" is a terrible justification for a law and can be used to justify all sorts of horrible things. Similarly, on the safety issues which you bring up, I think you are also being hypocritical. If regulating safety is your goal, then either you should a) support banning gay sex, which is extremely unsafe and spreads disease to unwilling participants,…

It's not always perfect, but I'm interested to hear your alternative. What if not the will of the people should be he foundation of your government? Brute force? The will of God?

And yes, I do support a ban on gay sex that involves unwilling participants.

Re: Uber's Failure in Japan

#137

Post by SamReidHughes »

crdoconnor wrote: post #129
SamReidHughes wrote: post #126

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> (they essentially had explicitly racist pay scales * ) Wrong. You're talking about Chinese-national bus drivers getting paid less in a country that's 75% Chinese ancestry.

In Singapore the 'racial' hierarchy is: Chinese Singaporean -> White -> Malay Singaporean -> Indian Singaporean -> Malaysian -> PRC Chinese -> Bangladeshi The bus driver salary hierarchy was : Singaporean -> Malaysian -> PRC Chinese PRCs are regularly denigrated with terms like "foreign trash" and "PRC scum" - they get the epithets much worse than most other immigrants - with the exception of Bangladeshis. I don't kn…

The salaries also reflect the negotiating power of people from somewhat poorer and much poorer countries. If they decided to lower Malaysian and Singaporean bus drivers to the same level as PRC, there wouldn't be any Malaysian or Singaporean bus drivers. The pricing of labor is exactly what you'd expect from economic and political incentives: don't lay off native labor, source foreign labor from multiple countries so they can't form a powerful union bloc, pay as little as possible.

Re: Uber's Failure in Japan

#138

Post by crdoconnor »

SamReidHughes wrote: post #137
crdoconnor wrote: post #129

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In Singapore the 'racial' hierarchy is: Chinese Singaporean -> White -> Malay Singaporean -> Indian Singaporean -> Malaysian -> PRC Chinese -> Bangladeshi The bus driver salary hierarchy was : Singaporean -> Malaysian -> PRC Chinese PRCs are regularly denigrated with terms like "foreign trash" and "PRC scum" - they get the epithets much worse than most other immigrants - with the exception of Bangladeshis. I don't kn…

The salaries also reflect the negotiating power of people from somewhat poorer and much poorer countries. If they decided to lower Malaysian and Singaporean bus drivers to the same level as PRC, there wouldn't be any Malaysian or Singaporean bus drivers. The pricing of labor is exactly what you'd expect from economic and political incentives: don't lay off native labor, source foreign labor from multiple countries so…

>The salaries also reflect the negotiating power

Right. And the 0 compensation of slaves before emancipation in the United States reflected their relative negotiating power.

>The pricing of labor is exactly what you'd expect from economic and political incentives

Right. If you get the police to beat up union organizers and throw them in prison it does tend to exert downward pressure on wages - which was exactly my point.

That's partly why it's the "2nd best country" to do business according to CATO: docile, servile labor.

Re: Uber's Failure in Japan

#139

Post by SamReidHughes »

crdoconnor wrote: post #138
SamReidHughes wrote: post #137

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The salaries also reflect the negotiating power of people from somewhat poorer and much poorer countries. If they decided to lower Malaysian and Singaporean bus drivers to the same level as PRC, there wouldn't be any Malaysian or Singaporean bus drivers. The pricing of labor is exactly what you'd expect from economic and political incentives: don't lay off native labor, source foreign labor from multiple countries so…

>The salaries also reflect the negotiating power Right. And the 0 compensation of slaves before emancipation in the United States reflected their relative negotiating power. >The pricing of labor is exactly what you'd expect from economic and political incentives Right. If you get the police to beat up union organizers and throw them in prison it does tend to exert downward pressure on wages - which was exactly my po…

Note that the only disagreement I have here (that I felt like articulating) is that the pay scales are "racist." Though I do want to point out that prohibiting unions from forming based on racial or country-of-origin lines is obviously a very reasonable thing for a country like Singapore to do. And so is prohibiting strikes without notice, or strikes, period, in essential sectors -- if you don't like it, go work in a non-essential sector.
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