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

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

#271

Post by fooblessmooo »

softwarebeware wrote: post #251
lifeisstillgood wrote: post #4

My take on the productivity paradox is software is a form of literacy . We have put a pen and paper onto every desktop and every pocket but almost no-one can read or write. Edit: And those that can find that only a tiny fraction of the fold is written down (accessible through the virtual cyber world). Amazon's secret to success was forcing every service to live behind a "public" API.

I think you’re on to something there. Most software available today merely does what free software already does, but with specific marketing to make it seem like something people need. For example, all of the below software categories are easily handled with either the software bundled with your operating system or a simple open source download: - budgeting - to do / productivity - book / music / video game / etc. me…

I think what’s truly missing is that all those apps don’t make sharing easy, and operating systems all suck at sharing, or when they’re ok at it (airdrop), it’s limited to nearby people, or not across OSes, etc.

Almost all SaaS are about easy cross-device, cross-internet, sharing, which all traditional apps don’t even try to be good at.

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

#272

Post by gamblor956 »

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…

Yeah, comments like this are why so many people have turned against techies.

A) There are plenty of students in the goldilocks zone of being from families to poor to afford a meal plan but too wealthy to qualify for free meals from their college. Some of these students are able to qualify for academic scholarships out of high school. The rest take on multiple jobs, including work-study, so that they can afford tuition and board.

B) When college campuses shut down for COVID, many shut down their food halls as well, which affected those students poor enough to qualify for subsidized meals.

Not everybody lives your life. Food insecurity is a real thing for thousands of college students.

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

#274

Post by a-dub »

Ekaros wrote: post #111
cultureulterior wrote: post #102

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The fact that medallions were so expensive that you could retire off owning one was the problem . There weren't enough taxis.

The insanity was that medallions had monetary value in first place. Just imagine that you couldn't start software company unless you bought medallion from someone already operating one. Or any other business for that matter... As for each type of business there is very good reasons to limit amount of those...

that insanity was why there were professional drivers who were making a good living at the trade.

but i suppose if the only constituents you really care about are customers, the people getting rich writing dispatch/billing software and the people facilitating the construction of a massive venture capital fueled duopolistic takeover of an entire industry, this works too i guess.

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

#275

Post by servytor »

bsenftner wrote: post #132
servytor wrote: post #32

I just find it really weird that there wasn't a thinktank in 2005 or so, that said "Okay, what are the next big phone applications?" and invented Uber and a few others. What is the point of these thinktanks if they can't predict 3 years ahead along our current technological advancement curve?

Sounds like you're unaware what a "thinktank" does: they are political propaganda machines with enough funding to impact the pop culture fringe of whatever industry funds the thinktank. In the US, most visible thinktanks are GOP/conservative marketing operations, such as The Heritage Foundation.

"A think tank, or policy institute, is a research institute that performs research and advocacy concerning topics such as social policy, political strategy, economics, military, technology, and culture."

The first sentence of the wikipedia page for 'thinktank'.

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

#276

Post by edanm »

Here's what I don't get - why is the existence of Uber proof of anything?

Yes, you're right, Uber is not particularly innovative. Neither is the pizza place down the corner. They're both a business that's trying to make money, albeit at different scale and via different products.

But the existence of the pizza place doesn't prove that there aren't companies creating innovation. Neither does the existence of Uber.

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

#277

Post by ChicagoDave »

alexashka wrote: post #238
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?

I can read and look up historical records. This isn’t rocket science. The combination of gutting our tax rates plus the GOP spending trillions on wars and tax breaks has killed the middle class. Look at everything Reagan did during his first 4 years. He decimated the middle class and waged war on black people and the poor.

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

#278

Post by bsder »

horsawlarway wrote: post #243
Retric wrote: post #225

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What’s missed in these discussions is these regulations had a point to them. It’s obvious Uber driving around without passengers increases congestion. Really look at AirBnb, Bird, etc and they all offload externalities from the company and it’s customers to everyone around them. When the basic building model is to break the law, chances are the law had a point and people are going to want a return to normal eventuall…

> What’s missed in these discussions is these regulations had a point to them. This varies a lot by area - For example, I'd say the NY medallion regulations had a point to them, and that point was to systematically abuse cab drivers for the profit of the local government and banks. Then for example - in my area (Atlanta) medallion supply was capped at 1600 - the result meant cabs basically didn't exist outside of the…

> This varies a lot by area - For example, I'd say the NY medallion regulations had a point to them, and that point was to systematically abuse cab drivers for the profit of the local government and banks.

NY cab medallion regulations were rooted in the aftermath of the Great Depression where it was a race to the bottom and little things like "car maintenance" were viewed as a burden.

Funnily enough, Uber and Lyft are in this race to the bottom right now. Hopefully we can stop it before they start kidnapping people.

History doesn't repeat, but it sure rhymes

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

#279

Post by giaour »

hash872 wrote: post #235
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 t…

> and frequently forced the drivers to do or pay for their own repairs on the cars.

I'm not saying the old medallion system was great, but I thought the cab companies back then owned all the cars. (Source: my in-laws owned a medallion company, and I knew a few other cab company owners in NYC in the aughts.) They would frequently make drivers take responsibility for routine care and maintenance (with the worst medallion companies really stretching the definition of "routine"), but they put up the capital and rented cabs out to drivers at exorbitant rates (e.g., $1500/week in NYC ~15 years ago).

Contrast this with Uber, which imposes the same or worse labor conditions and offloads all capital risk onto the drivers.

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

#280

Post by giaour »

belval wrote: post #237
MrMan wrote: post #218

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

It's undeniably more efficient to maintain a motor pool with a centralized mechanic shop.

I get that the taxi experience was not ideal for you, but Uber did introduce a lot of inefficiency into the livery market by decentralizing maintenance, procurement, and financing. Uber was able to do this while undercutting incumbents on price through a combination of fare subsidies, consuming external capital resources (i.e., asking industry outsiders with "excess capacity" (cars that weren't on the road 24/7) to wear down their own private vehicles), and having investors willing to tolerating large, upfront losses.

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