101–110 of 120 posts
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Also not to be under estimated is that he was driving drunk people when his rating was tanking; they rate lower.
I don't understand this, I drive drunk people on lyft almost exclusively, and I have a near 5-star rating.
It sounds like Uber's business model is essentially in sidestepping the consumer protections that exist for conventional private driver and taxi companies. It reminds me of how credit card companies and PayPal sidestep consumer protections created for banks.
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>Hey, uninsured motorist rates just went up! I wish they didn't do that, and instead Uber fares and pizza prices went up because I don't use them. They have no business imposing externalities on me. Indeed. If someone drives in such a way as to be uninsured, shame on them. Still not the company's fault for the individual's lack of responsibility.
Their business model is predicated on externalising many of the costs forced on taxi drivers. Claiming they have no responsibility for crafting and operating a business model that's designed to socalise costs is horseshit.
And take it with a grain of salt, since it's internal PR, but:
http://blog.lyft.com/post/75739276230/introducing-the-p2p-ri...
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>What's even more unsettling than the fact that many companies have this attitude towards their employees, is the degree to which members of HN unquestioningly defend this practice whenever the subject comes up. I didn't communicate my point well. My point wasn't that "it's OK to treat people like crap because: PROFIT!!" I'm the last person to claim that profit justifies everything. My point was: If Uber doesn't impo…
Thanks for your long reply. I think we are mostly in agreement. It seems like you are more cynical me, and I get the impression that you probably have less experience interacting with "the bottom percentile" (it's really the bottom 10-percentile) than me. I don't think this is surprising if you are truly better than 95% of all developers you work with - this places you in the elite of an elite group, and there is a v…
I would like to help them, but honestly charity is probably the least helpful of the options (if the only one available); I'm sure that no one likes to accept charity.
I believe that everyone wants to feel useful, meaning that accepting charity actually hurts their self esteem. Which is better than starving, of course. But it seems like there should be a better way.
>I would not want to live in a world that treats "under-performing" (implication: "performing" is our raison d'être) people as second-rate citizens.
Agreed, with the caveat that some jobs still need to have a minimum performance level.
We've been talking about driving people around, where the performance level is "only" critical to the survival of the company. But if you take the "ignore under-performance" concept to its logical conclusion, then you couldn't fire surgeons who kill all their patients.
Yes, that's a far more extreme example, but the point is some jobs really require that you are able to do them well. You can't ignore job performance for social ends, or you will end up harming society. There are many reasons that Communism failed: One is that people who know they can't be fired don't have as much motivation to perform well. An even better motivation to perform well would be to own the business you are working for (just look at the differences between neighborhoods that are primarily owned versus primarily rentals to see a very real example of this). But we can't flip the ownership equation overnight, and in the mean time we don't want incompetent surgeons killing people.
What you can do is create jobs where being a top performer isn't critical. And ensure those jobs pay a living wage -- even at 30 hours per week, ideally. A 30-hour work week might be the right answer, regardless. [1] It worked for Kellogg until the 80s, after all.
[1] http://www.alternet.org/labor/when-america-came-close-establ...
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Also not to be under estimated is that he was driving drunk people when his rating was tanking; they rate lower.
I don't understand this, I drive drunk people on lyft almost exclusively, and I have a near 5-star rating.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Arthur C. Clarke wrote a great essay on the challenges of rating systems, in "The Servant Problem - Oriental Style" (included in The View from Serendip : http://www.powells.com/biblio/2-9780345271082-1 ) It's a bit more nuanced than this, but the fundamental dilemma is: • An overly negative review essentially dooms someone to never working again. • An overly positive one leads to sticky questions from the next person…
And this, dear reader, is why we need bitcoin micropayments built into a browser.
A syndicated content payment system (not micropayments) is another option.
So let's do the math. $21/hour for 7 hours, $150/day, gross. I found some estimates online that a taxi driver might drive about 150 miles per day. Let's say 125 since this was sort of a short day. The IRS mileage allowance is 56 cents per mile - this is supposed to be an "all-in" number that includes all of the costs of owning and operating a vehicle. So that's $70/day for vehicle costs which the operator will have t…
It doesn't cost $70 per day to go 125 miles in a city. Otherwise my car with 59000 miles would have already costed me $33K in all expenses. It hasn't. Further, this is what the IRS allows you to DEDUCT. So his taxable income is reduced by the 56 cents per mile - to the extent that his costs are less than 56 cents per mile, he is making more due to the tax-advantaged nature. Also, at the end of the first year he can e…
But remember to factor in depreciation and wear and tear on the car, in addition to all the gas and repair costs. If you're driving an old Toyota Yaris it'll be much less than 56 cents per mile. If it's a brand-new Mercedes S-Class you've financed, it's probably going to be more.
It sounds like Uber's business model is essentially in sidestepping the consumer protections that exist for conventional private driver and taxi companies. It reminds me of how credit card companies and PayPal sidestep consumer protections created for banks.
what consumer protections? I drive for lyft, and a large portion of the clientele is the GLBT community, who have stopped taking taxis because finally there is an alternative to being harassed and mistreated by the driver on account of their sexuality.
So let's do the math. $21/hour for 7 hours, $150/day, gross. I found some estimates online that a taxi driver might drive about 150 miles per day. Let's say 125 since this was sort of a short day. The IRS mileage allowance is 56 cents per mile - this is supposed to be an "all-in" number that includes all of the costs of owning and operating a vehicle. So that's $70/day for vehicle costs which the operator will have t…