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Lending Club plans layoffs, discloses loans to former CEO and family members

latimes.com

81–90 of 137 posts

Re: Lending Club plans layoffs, discloses loans to former CEO and family members

#81

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The success of Uber in a city is directly proportional to how much taxis suck in that city. So Singapore is one of a few cities where that's the case (NYC also -- Uber doesn't really work there. I was there for 8 days and requesting an Uber as a 10-15 minute wait. You can get into one of a million cabs that go by in that time. I gave up).

Except when it's 4 pm and you want to go to the airport from Manhattan, at which point none of the million cabs are interested in picking you up.

Or in the other four boroughs of NYC, or Manhattan above ~125th St.

edit: which is exactly why the city rolled out the green cab system, which has inverted limitations on where they can accept street hails

Re: Lending Club plans layoffs, discloses loans to former CEO and family members

#82
post #29
post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

on demand car hailing = taxis?

For me still this equation holds true. Taxes are abundant and cheap in Singapore. Riding in someone's car makes me uncomfortable. (But that is just me, I suppose)

That's not my experience in Singapore. The one time I was there I had to wait 15 minutes to get a taxi and then had to argue with them to get them to take me where I wanted.

In contrast, Uber took less time and required no negotiation.

Re: Lending Club plans layoffs, discloses loans to former CEO and family members

#83

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes, but it's been around for years. If corporations are persons, and they can commit felonies, why not give them punishments that are analogous to what you'd give a person who committed a felony?

> If corporations are persons, and they can commit felonies, why not give them punishments that are analogous to what you'd give a person who committed a felony? Because corporate personhood is a legal fiction, and a corporate death penalty doesn't really hurt the people who a corporation stands in for very much, and hurts lots of other people a lot.

Corporate death would just be another form of bankruptcy, which hurts shareholders and employees but wouldn't harm anyone else. Actually since this would be a rare form of bankruptcy with plenty of assets, it could be set up to pay restitution to various corporate victims as well.

Re: Lending Club plans layoffs, discloses loans to former CEO and family members

#84
post #3

In just world this would result in a prison sentence, banishment from stock exchanges, and revocation of their corporate charter. The fact that there is no capital punishment for companies, especially public ones, provides a moral hazard.

Yes, punish the hundreds who simply do their job by forcing the company to go out of business, instead of trying to steer it towards a more productive future. We've gotta justify that pitchfork investment, don't we?

I'm sure I've seen "just doing my job" invoked in a pejorative sense, in close parallel to "just following orders"? When one's job is to harm society, society might step in, even if one "didn't know".

Re: Lending Club plans layoffs, discloses loans to former CEO and family members

#85

Earlier quoted context omitted.

yeah, but unless you're in a city like New York (possibly a handful of others) the wait is FOREVER. In Phoenix it was routine to have to wait half an hour or more. Same in SLC. It's awful. Uber and Lyft reduced the wait to a fraction of the time with better, quicker and cheaper service.

I've spent plenty of time waiting for my Uber as well: lots of "your car is 5 minutes away for 15 minutes". Uber isn't as brilliant as they want us to believe they are.

"Your car is five minutes away. It is currently on a freeway driving away from you at 50 miles per hour. Now it is six minutes away".

Re: Lending Club plans layoffs, discloses loans to former CEO and family members

#86
post #51

Earlier quoted context omitted.

yeah, but unless you're in a city like New York (possibly a handful of others) the wait is FOREVER. In Phoenix it was routine to have to wait half an hour or more. Same in SLC. It's awful. Uber and Lyft reduced the wait to a fraction of the time with better, quicker and cheaper service.

This complaint makes no sense to me. You just call the taxi company further in advance of when you need the ride. If you know it's always around a 30 minute wait, just call 45 minutes ahead of time and tell them the time you need picked up. Phoenix & SLC are also not cities in which people are likely to rely on on-demand ride sharing. Most people own their own car especially if they care about being able to determine…

No, you are wrong. Uber is profitable in hundreds of cities.

http://www.businessinsider.com/uber-profitable-in-hundreds-o...

Re: Lending Club plans layoffs, discloses loans to former CEO and family members

#87
post #48
post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

People have dreamt about on-demand car hailing for a long time, but it's always been a pipe dream - building the two-sided network is such too hard and too expensive, and a small network is just not worth using as a consumer. How is this not innovation?

Most of the innovation there was in the cell phone[1]. You've been able to order a car by phone in major metros for longer than those have been around. In fact, Uber started off as an app for using those very services. Props to Uber for execution, but all the pieces were there. [1]-edit: some in the smartphone, but most in the old "makes calls" cell phones

Ummm... as a matter of fact, Uber was only a black car service until Lyft (and perhaps others) started P2P service. Uber was a fast follower in that space.

Re: Lending Club plans layoffs, discloses loans to former CEO and family members

#88
post #68

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I just logged in specifically to tell you that as a SLC resident without a car, I use lyft extensively. Similarly all my friends do as well, for the almost perfect example people use of preventing drunk driving. I'm already pretty strapped for cash, hence why I don't have a car but I utilize Uber & Lyft when I'm unable to get to my destination in a timely manner. I would not however get a taxi simply because I don't…

This just makes your comment lose all credibility to me, I'm afraid: > I would not however get a taxi simply because I don't know the number to call, I don't know when they'll arrive at my house, and simply the entire taxi experience is just horrible. You don't know the number? Really? If you have a mobile device from which to use Lyft, then getting the number is completely and entirely trivial. While there is some v…

I remember trying to find a cab in suburban Silicon Valley on my first visit in the days before Uber. Then as now, if you Google for "taxi Mountain View" or similar, you get 2.5 million results. Should I call Yellow Cab or Yellow Taxi Cab or Bay Area Yellow Cab or Sky Cab? Which one is going to show up in a reasonable amount of time and not gouge me? Who the fuck knows! Not even my local coworkers did, because they all drive and never take taxis. I ended up asking reception, who sorted me out, but odds are she books with the company that gives her the biggest kickbacks...

These days, when I visit SV (or almost any other city), this problem is solved. Uber, bam, done.

Re: Lending Club plans layoffs, discloses loans to former CEO and family members

#89

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't disagree with you, but your statement is incomplete without acknowledging these were also illegal services.

Sure, but these are stupid laws.

Wow, I forgot we set up our society so tech developers got to decide what kind of society we wanted. Laws requiring cabs to serve disadvantaged areas? Accept cash so people without credit could get around? Provide safe living spaces, up to code, for visitors from out of town? How disconnected from reality are you?

Furthermore, what kind of precedent does flaunting legitimate laws set? Thankfully Austin was able to have some balls and not allow that shit to fly.

Re: Lending Club plans layoffs, discloses loans to former CEO and family members

#90
post #68

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This just makes your comment lose all credibility to me, I'm afraid: > I would not however get a taxi simply because I don't know the number to call, I don't know when they'll arrive at my house, and simply the entire taxi experience is just horrible. You don't know the number? Really? If you have a mobile device from which to use Lyft, then getting the number is completely and entirely trivial. While there is some v…

> even though you tell them when to arrive, that's when they arrive Having used taxis in multiple countries for most of my life until Uber/Lyft... ... HAH! If this was the case then there wouldn't be so much of a problem. The number of cab companies that say they'll show up and don't (or show up late as hell) is massive. Uber at least lets you know if it's running late (ie - an ETA). Taxi companies should have been o…

I have also used taxis in many countries. They arrive mostly on time, and when they are not on time, the variability is not significantly different than the variability also experienced with Uber/Lyft.
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