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

We must return to an economy fueled by innovation, rather than disruption

greg-satell.medium.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

231–240 of 318 posts

Re: We must return to an economy fueled by innovation, rather than disruption

#231

Post by alexashka »

nradov wrote: post #201
skohan wrote: post #191

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So I agree with some of your points: I.e. I think people would generally agree the user experience of Uber is an improvement over taxis even if the labour conditions are a regression. The problem I see is that even the potential for disruption is consolidated in fewer and fewer hands. With IP law the way it is, Google and Apple acting as gatekeepers to mobile ecosystems, Amazon owning e-commerce and squeezing or comp…

Every week there are startups in Silicon Valley (and other places) building great products, getting more funding rounds, getting acquired, and going public. There are an infinite number of potential new market segments where the incumbent tech giants have no IP. Invent something new.

This is delusional, bordering on being a troll take.

Would you apply the same logic to starting a new country? Don't like your government, go start your own country!

Corporations are and have been for some time, larger and more powerful than many countries, because, you know, globalization?

So, you know, please spare us your 'don't like it, do it yourself' takes.

Re: We must return to an economy fueled by innovation, rather than disruption

#232

Post by signatoremo »

MrMan wrote: post #218
belval wrote: post #210

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't like Uber, but it became popular because of convenience, not because of costs. Pre-Uber/Lift in my city you'd have taxi companies that were operating like a cartel and giving a shitty service. Drivers were borderline rude. You had to call a dispatcher that was also usually rude and then wait 20 mins for a cab to show up. Uber changed that process for the best by actually allowing me to get a taxi from an app…

the previous poster makes a very important point - Uber re-externalized the costs for fleet maintenance and many other costs and push them outside their balance sheet.

The flip side? They open up the pool of drivers substantially. Where I am it was impossible to get a taxi in the evening before Uber. Had I have access to Uber back then I wouldn’t need a car given my travel need. But I didn’t, so I had to get a car instead

Re: We must return to an economy fueled by innovation, rather than disruption

#233

Post by adamqureshi »

Back in the day my cousin was driving yellow cab in NYC. He would work 6/7 days a week 12 hour shifts. He eventually took our a mortgage ( loan) to buy a yellow cab medallion. Cost was like $1M. And BAM! uber came on the scene and the value for his medallion DROPPED. X 10k yellow cab drivers and those who bought medallions with a ridiculous loan. What did uBER do? that was so innovating? they simply put guys like my cousin OUT OF BUSINESS and underwater on their loans. WOW. Poor guy worked 20 years driving yellow cab and thought he would have a future buying medallions. Technology should enable rather than destroy people or slice up an industry to squeeze the lifers who've been in that industry their whole lives. Thats just 1 story of what happened in NYC when uber came on the scene. May not apply to ALL start ups i don't know. 2-cents.

Re: We must return to an economy fueled by innovation, rather than disruption

#234

Post by alexashka »

Ekaros wrote: post #223
650 wrote: post #179

I’ve been using delivery apps on and off for the past few months. Between the promos I’ve received, I’ve gotten groceries delivered for less than the items cost let alone the gas and time to deliver them. I’ve had multiple food items delivered at a lower cost than me walking there and buying in store as well. Talking to a few drivers for the companies - its tough, but they make a decent amount in the city (4-7k a mon…

I think we will see crashes in food delivery eventually. As whole outside high margin items it doesn't make sense when you start to look at margin of restaurant, wage and operating costs of the delivery person and then the profit and cut for the platform, staffed by overpriced engineers, marketing people and executives...

I don't know. Pizza delivery has been around longer than I've been alive. Why does that work?

Re: We must return to an economy fueled by innovation, rather than disruption

#235

Post by hash872 »

Ambolia wrote: post #205

Uber if anything makes taxis less productive and efficient, a big taxi company can take care car repairs in a very efficient way. The magic of Uber is taking those hidden costs and pushing them on the drivers, now the cars get fixed in a much less efficient way, but the ones taking the risk are the drivers, so Uber wins overall.

This argument is my pet peeve. Taxi companies employed drivers as 'independent contractors' who were paid pretty similar to Uber drivers now- by the ride, not by the hour- and frequently forced the drivers to do or pay for their own repairs on the cars. They were often immigrants, they'd work 12+ hours a day, medallion owners issued them illegal fines or took an overly large chunk of the money they earned, etc. The taxi industry was known as notoriously abusive to its drivers for decades & decades before smartphones were even invented, much less Uber. I'm always a bit amazed at how people now remember the old taxi system as good for drivers, much less riders

Re: We must return to an economy fueled by innovation, rather than disruption

#236

Post by Ekaros »

alexashka wrote: post #234
Ekaros wrote: post #223

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think we will see crashes in food delivery eventually. As whole outside high margin items it doesn't make sense when you start to look at margin of restaurant, wage and operating costs of the delivery person and then the profit and cut for the platform, staffed by overpriced engineers, marketing people and executives...

I don't know. Pizza delivery has been around longer than I've been alive. Why does that work?

As said it is high margin item. Many others don't deliver as well or have the margin making food delivery actually possible.

Re: We must return to an economy fueled by innovation, rather than disruption

#237

Post by belval »

MrMan wrote: post #218
belval wrote: post #210

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't like Uber, but it became popular because of convenience, not because of costs. Pre-Uber/Lift in my city you'd have taxi companies that were operating like a cartel and giving a shitty service. Drivers were borderline rude. You had to call a dispatcher that was also usually rude and then wait 20 mins for a cab to show up. Uber changed that process for the best by actually allowing me to get a taxi from an app…

the previous poster makes a very important point - Uber re-externalized the costs for fleet maintenance and many other costs and push them outside their balance sheet.

I don't deny the externalities of Uber, but the previous poster wrote:

> Uber if anything makes taxis less productive and efficient

Which is blatantly false. Taxi companies were pretty terrible and only got better because of competition. Getting in a taxi and having no idea how much it's going to cost me was a bad customer experience.

Re: We must return to an economy fueled by innovation, rather than disruption

#238

Post by alexashka »

ChicagoDave wrote: post #104

The loss of innovation has zip to do with the Uber Economy. Try the fact that the middle class has been gutted by an unfair tax structure that shreds responsibility away from the wealthy and corporations and has created peripheral damage in high college cost and low public school expectations. Bring back the tax rate where people making over 540k (the 1980 equivalent of the top tax rate $225,000) pay 50% on anything…

> Our tax structure is insanely out of balance. That's the number one core problem in the United States.

How do you know that? What are your qualifications?

Re: We must return to an economy fueled by innovation, rather than disruption

#239

Post by xhkkffbf »

JackFr wrote: post #228

> In the US, food insecurity has become an epidemic on college campuses. Difficult to the article seriously when reading this. (And I did follow the link to read the academic paper referenced. Though I am not in the field, I thought it was terrible. By defining food insecurity down and needlessly conflating categories it attempts to make a real problem seem worse than it is by viewing it through an ill conceived lens…

Agreed. And college campuses aren't exactly the most Uber-like place. While they experiment with online courses and some are really embracing them, the dominant vision is a pay-one-price, all-you-can-eat model. The colleges themselves bear plenty of similarities to the communist model thanks to need-based financial aid.

So the fact that kids are food insecure on college campuses suggests that it's not a problem with Uberization or the economic model.

Post reply on HN