Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Sweden proposes ban on ride-sharing services that make profits

reuters.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

121–130 of 221 posts

Re: Sweden proposes ban on ride-sharing services that make profits

#121

Post by [deleted] »

mr_blobs wrote: post #98
3poundkilograms wrote: post #50

Earlier quoted context omitted.

One monkey says to a group of other monkeys: "We all need to take one of the 5 bananas we individually have to feed the doctor monkey, the asphalt monkey and the teacher monkey, from whom we receive services." One monkey from the group, which just came back in his car from the doctor monkey with his daughter that goes to the local monkey school: "I refuse to give up my bananas!". Remember context. Full context is imp…

Reality is more like: 2 out of 10 monkeys spend all their waking hours sacrificing and working so their children can have more than 1 banana and then give 15 out of the 20 bananas they earn to the group. The majority of monkeys in the group gives 0 bananas, but continue to say that the ones that do give the most aren't paying their fair share (and need to give even more). They then have many discussions on how they c…

[deleted]

Re: Sweden proposes ban on ride-sharing services that make profits

#122

Post by imafish »

mr_blobs wrote: post #98
3poundkilograms wrote: post #50

Earlier quoted context omitted.

One monkey says to a group of other monkeys: "We all need to take one of the 5 bananas we individually have to feed the doctor monkey, the asphalt monkey and the teacher monkey, from whom we receive services." One monkey from the group, which just came back in his car from the doctor monkey with his daughter that goes to the local monkey school: "I refuse to give up my bananas!". Remember context. Full context is imp…

Reality is more like: 2 out of 10 monkeys spend all their waking hours sacrificing and working so their children can have more than 1 banana and then give 15 out of the 20 bananas they earn to the group. The majority of monkeys in the group gives 0 bananas, but continue to say that the ones that do give the most aren't paying their fair share (and need to give even more). They then have many discussions on how they c…

Despite the exaggeration (2 out 10), this is actually an issue in the Nordic countries, so I do not understand the downvote.

Re: Sweden proposes ban on ride-sharing services that make profits

#123

Post by laughingman123 »

edblarney wrote: post #66
Tangokat wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Would you mind providing a source for 2)? In my experience you couldn't be more wrong.

Talk to an older Swede. If you're young, and talk mostly to young Swedes, it's a different story. Actually, one of the reasons that this may be 'contentious' is because of 'startup culture'. When I say 'business' - you might be thinking 'startup'. Surely - it's 'cool' among young people to be at a startup, doing some cool thing like 'games' or 'music'. But the attitude towards most business, by that I mean what is re…

Yeah right, let's all ignore the swedes talking about their own nation and listen to actual facts

Re: Sweden proposes ban on ride-sharing services that make profits

#124

Post by Ntrails »

zzzzzzzzzman wrote: post #83
j-pb wrote: post #77

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Everybody is a neoliberal until they have to pay for their own hospital bill.

I am an American and I pay for all of my medical care privately, without insurance :)

Ah, yes, the old "I have totally done this so far in my life and thus it is a model for all peoples" chestnut.

I have this vague memory of someone who was litigating about obamacare being unconstitutional for forcing people to have insurance and then defaulting on their sudden unexpected large hospital bill...

Realistically you've been lucky, and that's fine. You're against risk pooling because you feel that's not something you need. Self evidently the pooling is to cover the less fortunate. the "there but for the grace of god go I" situation. Maybe you think they're all scroungers and wastrels? Or that they don't deserve access to medical care just by virtue of existing and being ill.

It's a cultural thing tbh, but bemusing to me.

Re: Sweden proposes ban on ride-sharing services that make profits

#125

Post by zzzzzzzzzman »

laughingman123 wrote: post #102

These anti neoliberal nuts don't understand , for them taxation is just stealing .. They collectively bury their heads and ignore that any business they do is possible because of collective efforts of the human community before them, from invention of fire to quantum theory. And enabling people to study and have healthcare has overall positive benifita on society . How many scientists, engineers have we missed becaus…

Humans have contributed knowledge and technology both privately and publicly.

The real question is, why is it that today we have education and health care "systems" that have ridiculously ballooning costs, and dwindling quality?

Re: Sweden proposes ban on ride-sharing services that make profits

#127

Post by DasIch »

zzzzzzzzzman wrote: post #107
qyv wrote: post #86

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And private police, private military, private customs & border security... You cannot live in a modern nation and not rely on services that are paid for by taxes.

Why is the average able bodied citizen unable to protect himself the local and national level? Why don't the concerned citizens pool their funds together to pay for their own defence? If we must pay taxes for these things, why must their be so much corruption and fraud (think of the expensive fighter jets and missiles that government agents purchase at inflated prices, from companies that funnel profits to a very sel…

The concerned citizens do pool their funds together to pay for their own defence, they do this with a system called "government".

Re: Sweden proposes ban on ride-sharing services that make profits

#128

Post by abandonliberty »

edblarney wrote: post #9
kalleboo wrote: post #3

So, they want to encourage ride-sharing in the original meaning - carpooling. Not the "taxi company in disguise" meaning. Sounds fair enough to me. For context, the taxi regulation in Sweden is very light. There is no medallion system limiting the number of cars, and no regulation of prices. You just need an extended driver's license, an approved taxi-meter (same as how grocery stores need their scales to be approved…

"So, they want to encourage ride-sharing in the original meaning - carpooling. Not the "taxi company in disguise" meaning. Sounds fair enough to me." I'm not necessarily a fan of Uber, but this is ridiculous. If 'taxis' are legal in Sweden then there's no reason Uber should not be able to operate so long as they are obeying the laws . Ostensibly, this is about a specific issue - distance travelled and the lack of abi…

In most places they are breaking laws and calling it 'disruptive innovation':

Losing crazy amounts of VC cash to [often illegally] compete against traditional companies that must be cashflow positive. It's not a level playing field. Laws exist so that drivers could make a livable wage; Uber is devaluing the medallions they've invested in.

Meanwhile in Europe they're still trying to argue that they're not a taxi company.

There's real disruptive innovation where laws don't exist yet. Digital data mining, surveillance, self driving cars, AI, etc.

Let's not confuse the two.

Re: Sweden proposes ban on ride-sharing services that make profits

#130

Post by edblarney »

arkitaip wrote: post #108
edblarney wrote: post #44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The Nordic companies are not 'the best' at startups, not remotely close. They have some nice attributes. I worked for the EU government studying these issues a decade ago. One of the primary reasons it's hard for startups over there, is that there are really weak eco-systems - you need 'big pocketed' acquierers (among other things) to sustain the model. Paradoxically, the (admittedly older) 'anti business' attitude,…

You are contradicting yourself and honestly I don't see the point of correcting these falsehoods but I will note that Sweden and other Scandinavian countries are doing pretty damn well internationally considering how small the populations are [1][2][3]. [1] http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/newsbysector/mediatechnol... [2] http://smashdig.com/artikel/10-most-successful-swedish-start... [3] https://sweden.se/business…

I'm not remotely contradicting myself.

Also - your 'references' are standard 'glam posts' by media outlets, they are pop culture references, not serious measures of the success of businesses.

Those types of articles and the common 'country rankings' are surprisingly not particularly relevant - the later, almost always depend on the criteria chosen.

For example - if you have as your 'startup criteria':

A) The prevalence of educated population B) Access to healthcare C) Quality of Universities

etc.

Then you'll get certain results that may have nothing to do with startups.

My point that 'Swedes are good at startups but Sweden is not the best place for startups' is not remotely contradictory.

Given the choice between Sweden, and any of the American tech-hubs, there is little comparison: America is better.

And it has mostly to do with market size, access to capital, exit opportunities, exchanges, talent pools etc. etc.

+ The scale of American business means there is a level of specialization unheard of almost anywhere else. There are tons of jobs in the Valley that literally don't exist anywhere else.

+ Growing fast and need to hire 1000 developers over the next 5 years? Impossible in Stockholm. Possible in the Valley. Plausible elsewhere.

+ Looking to be acquired? Tons of buyers, many with deep pockets in the Valley. Sweden? Almost none. You'll have to get someone in Germany/UK/USA etc. interested in making a very foreign acquisition. Much harder.

+ Language and culture are barriers. Swedes have access to EU talent, but how many will move? Low rates of mobility in Europe. In America, people move 1000Km for a job, less so in Europe.

+ Want to go IPO? It's a lot easier for an American company.

Do you know why at YC, young entrepreneurs are seriously pressured to simply 'move to the Valley'? It's related to all the reasons above. These are essentially the reason that 'the Valley' is a powerhouse, compared to other places - even when 'other places' may have consistently higher degrees of education etc. etc...

Post reply on HN