Massachusetts will tax Uber and Lyft, and transfer the money to taxi companies. Charlie Baker, a Republican, really should know better, but I guess many Republicans are still pro-business rather than pro-market. and Democrats, whatever happened to embracing change and technology? Consumers love it, the companies love it, since when did protecting obsolete industries become important?
Amtrak on line 1, sir.
Amtrak isn’t under competitive pressures. Amtrak exists because no one really wants to do passenger rail. I’m not sure government should be subsidizing Amtrak either, but it’s not really the same case. Now if some high tech company found a way to steal all of Amtrak’s customers by offering lower prices, then that would be equivalent, and I’d say, “Oh well, I guess Amtrak is screwed.” That’s how the real world works. But government doesn’t live in the real world, they believe you can keep reality at bay with legislation.
Great thread title, with real lasting potential. Bipartisanship is the ultimate threat to individual liberty in a two party system.
Monetary policy
Entitlement policy
Foreign policy
All largely bipartisan nightmares.
And no, Amtrak should not be subsidized. There are many better ways for people to get around. It simply subsidizes suburban dwellers.
Amtrak is subsidized in part because a functioning rail network in the United States is in our strategic military interests. Taxi service? not so much.
Vehicles providing rides for people for a fee is an “obsolete industry”? :dubious:
How so?
For set fees having no relation to what the market price of a ride is, using set supply that also has no relation to market demand.
What Uber and Lyft have done is prove that the demand for ride service is much higher than the taxis to support it, which is why the taxi industry is in trouble. Supply was too low, prices were too high, and they were completely unprepared to deal with a company that would provide such services the way the public actually wanted.
This is just Uncle Sam coming to take his piece of the pie. Uber was a genius and innovative idea that revolutionized easy cheap travel. I don’t know how many times the wife and I decided not to go out to a bar, because taxi’s take to long and cost to much. I think that instead of taxing uber, the taxi conglomerates should lower prices and bring change to the way they operate, to remain competitive.
Are you actually dumb or just pretending to be to mock adaher?
Military?
Can’t we pick him up and drop him off from street corner to street corner by Drone?
Think of it as one Heck of a really fun Claw Machine game.
“Dammit, I almost got WillFarnaby to his destination before he dropped. Anybody got a Quarter…?”
Yes. Trains move US military equipment every day. If the need should ever arise that we need to move MASSIVE amounts of military equipment trains will bury the capabilities of the US’s private semi-trailer fleet. What it will take, however, are trains and track in good condition.
That is a very dumb policy, just because Adaher was the one posting it doesn’t automatically mean it should be defended.
In case this is directed at me- what?
I don’t see anyone defending it.
In fact, of all the comments here, most aren’t even talking about it.
Well, they are competing with the gigantically-subidized highway system, and all the intercity surface transport options that depend on that.
Yeah, this seems dumb and strictly a political bone thrown to taxi companies. Something that would have made more sense to me would be to use that money to buy back the medallions that taxi companies have bought.
Amtrak doesn’t really matter one way or the other though. CSX and commercial freight companies are what matter and their business model is actually solid.
Yeah, I don’t like bailing out people for really bad investment decisions either, especially since in places like New York those medallions were often given away by lottery, not auctioned.
The best way is just to put taxis under the same regulation as Uber and Lyft and let them sink or swim. That might be impossible though, since if taxi companies are anything like my local taxi companies, running them has always been more about political connections and rent seeking than actually running a sound business.