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<div id="readability-page-1" class="page">
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<p>Horror stories about the increasingly unpopular taxi service Uber have
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been commonplace in recent months, but there is still much to be learned
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from its handling of the recent hostage drama in downtown Sydney, Australia.
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We’re told that we reveal our true character in moments of crisis, and
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apparently that’s as true for companies as it is for individuals.</p>
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<p>A number of experts have challenged the idea that the horrific explosion
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of violence in a Sydney café was “terrorism,” since the attacker was mentally
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unbalanced and acted alone. But, terror or not, the ordeal was certainly
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terrifying. Amid the chaos and uncertainty, the city believed itself to
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be under a coordinated and deadly attack.</p>
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<p>Uber had an interesting, if predictable, response to the panic and mayhem:
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It raised prices. A lot.</p>
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<p>In case you missed the story, the facts are these: Someone named Man Haron
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Monis, who was considered mentally unstable and had been investigated for
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murdering his ex-wife, seized hostages in a café that was located in Sydney’s
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Central Business District or “CBD.” In the process he put up an Islamic
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flag – “igniting,” as <a href="http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/12/15/us-australia-security-idUSKBN0JS0WX20141215">Reuters</a> reported,
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“fears of a jihadist attack in the heart of the country’s biggest city.”</p>
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<p>In the midst of the fear, Uber stepped in and tweeted this announcement: <span>“We are all concerned with events in CBD. Fares have increased to encourage
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more drivers to come online & pick up passengers in the area.”</span>
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</p>
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<p>As <a href="http://mashable.com/2014/12/14/uber-sydney-surge-pricing/">Mashable </a>reports,
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the company announced that it would charge a minimum of $100 Australian
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to take passengers from the area immediately surrounding the ongoing crisis,
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and prices increased by as much as four times the standard amount. A firestorm
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of criticism quickly erupted – “<a href="https://twitter.com/Uber_Sydney">@Uber_Sydney</a> stop
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being assholes,” one Twitter response began – and Uber soon found itself
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offering free rides out of the troubled area instead.</p>
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<p>That opener suggests that Uber, as part of a community under siege, is
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preparing to respond in a civic manner.<em></em>
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</p>
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<p><em>“… Fares have increased to encourage more drivers to come online & pick up passengers in the area.”</em>
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</p>
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<div data-toggle-group="story-13850779">
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<p>But, despite the expression of shared concern, there is no sense of <em>civitas</em> to
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be found in the statement that follows. There is only a transaction, executed
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at what the corporation believes to be market value. Lesson #1 about Uber
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is, therefore, that in its view there is no heroism, only self-interest.
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This is Ayn Rand’s brutal, irrational and primitive philosophy in its purest
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form: altruism is evil, and self-interest is the only true heroism.<em></em>
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</p>
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<p>There was once a time when we might have read of “hero cabdrivers” or
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“hero bus drivers” placing themselves in harm’s way to rescue their fellow
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citizens. For its part, Uber might have suggested that it would use its
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network of drivers and its scheduling software to recruit volunteer drivers
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for a rescue mission.<em></em>
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</p>
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<p>Instead, we are told that Uber’s pricing surge <em>was</em> its expression
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of concern. Uber’s way to address a human crisis is apparently by letting
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the market govern human behavior, as if there were (in libertarian economist
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Tyler Cowen’s phrase) “markets in everything” – including the lives of
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a city’s beleaguered citizens (and its Uber drivers). <em></em>
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</p>
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<p>Where would this kind of market-driven practice leave poor or middle-income
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citizens in a time of crisis? If they can’t afford the “surged” price,
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apparently it would leave them squarely in the line of fire. And come to
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think of it, why would Uber drivers value their lives so cheaply, unless
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they’re underpaid? <em></em>
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</p>
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<p>One of the lessons of Sydney is this: Uber’s philosophy, whether consciously
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expressed or not, is that life belongs to the highest bidder – and therefore,
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by implication, the highest bidder’s life has the greatest value. Society,
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on the other hand, may choose to believe that every life has equal value
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– or that lifesaving services should be available at affordable prices. <em></em>
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</p>
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<p>If nothing else, the Sydney experience should prove once and for all that
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there is no such thing as “the sharing economy.” Uber is a taxi company,
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albeit an under-regulated one, and nothing more. It’s certainly not a “ride
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sharing” service, where someone who happens to be going in the same direction
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is willing to take along an extra passenger and split gas costs. A ride-sharing
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service wouldn’t find itself “increasing fares to encourage more drivers”
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to come into Sydney’s terrorized Central Business District. <em></em>
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</p>
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<p>A “sharing economy,” by definition, is lateral in structure. It is a peer-to-peer
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economy. But Uber, as its name suggests, is hierarchical in structure.
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It monitors and controls its drivers, demanding that they purchase services
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from it while guiding their movements and determining their level of earnings.
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And its pricing mechanisms impose unpredictable costs on its customers,
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extracting greater amounts whenever the data suggests customers can be
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compelled to pay them.<em></em>
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</p>
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<p>This is a top-down economy, not a “shared” one.<em></em>
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</p>
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<p>A number of Uber’s fans and supporters defended the company on the grounds
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that its “surge prices,” including those seen during the Sydney crisis,
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are determined by an algorithm. But an algorithm can be an ideological
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statement, and is always a cultural artifact. As human creations, algorithms
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reflect their creators. <em></em>
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</p>
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<p>Uber’s tweet during the Sydney crisis made it sound as if human intervention,
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rather than algorithmic processes, caused prices to soar that day. But
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it doesn’t really matter if that surge was manually or algorithmically
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driven. Either way the prices were Uber’s doing – and its moral choice.<em></em>
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</p>
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<p>Uber has been strenuously defending its surge pricing in the wake of accusations
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(apparently <a href="http://gothamist.com/2012/11/04/uber.php">justified</a>)
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that the company enjoyed windfall profits during Hurricane Sandy. It has
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now promised the state of New York that it will cap its surge prices (at
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three times the highest rate on two non-emergency days). But if Uber has
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its way, it will soon enjoy a monopolistic stranglehold on car service
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rates in most major markets. And it has demonstrated its willingness to
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ignore rules and regulations. That means<em> </em>predictable and affordable
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taxi fares could become a thing of the past. <em></em>
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</p>
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<p>In practice, surge pricing could become a new, privatized form of taxation
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on middle-class taxi customers.<em></em>
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</p>
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<p>Even without surge pricing, Uber and its supporters are hiding its full
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costs. When middle-class workers are underpaid or deprived of benefits
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and full working rights, as Uber’s <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/uber-drivers-say-theyre-making-less-than-minimum-wage-2014-10">reportedly are</a>,
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the entire middle-class economy suffers. Overall wages and benefits are
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suppressed for the majority, while the wealthy few are made even richer.
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The invisible costs of ventures like Uber are extracted over time, far
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surpassing whatever short-term savings they may occasionally offer.<em></em>
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</p>
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<p>Like Walmart, Uber underpays its employees – many of its drivers <em>are</em> employees,
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in everything but name – and then drains the social safety net to make
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up the difference. While Uber preaches libertarianism, it practices a form
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of corporate welfare. It’s reportedly <a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/wonkblog/wp/2014/11/17/why-uber-loves-obamacare/">celebrating Obamacare</a>,
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for example, since the Affordable Care Act allows it to avoid providing
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health insurance to its workforce. But the ACA’s subsidies, together with
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Uber’s often woefully insufficient wages, mean that the rest of us are
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paying its tab instead. And the lack of income security among Uber’s drivers
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creates another social cost for Americans – in lost tax revenue, and possibly
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in increased use of social services. <em></em>
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</p>
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<p>The company’s war on regulation will also carry a social price. Uber and
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its supporters don’t seem to understand that<em> </em>regulations exist
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for a reason. It’s true that nobody likes excessive bureaucracy, but not
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all regulations are excessive or onerous. And when they are, it’s a flaw
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in execution rather than principle. <em></em>
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</p>
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<p>Regulations were created because they serve a social purpose, ensuring
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the free and fair exchange of services and resources among all segments
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of society. Some services, such as transportation, are of such importance
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that the public has a vested interest in ensuring they will be readily
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available at reasonably affordable prices. That’s not unreasonable for
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taxi services, especially given the fact that they profit from publicly
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maintained roads and bridges.<em></em>
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</p>
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<p>Uber has presented itself as a modernized, efficient alternative to government
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oversight. But it’s an evasion of regulation, not its replacement. As
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<a
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href="http://fusion.net/story/33680/the-inside-story-of-how-the-uber-portland-negotiations-broke-down/">Alexis Madrigal</a>reports, Uber has deliberately ignored city regulators
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and used customer demand to force its model of inadequate self-governance
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(my conclusion, not his) onto one city after another.<em></em>
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</p>
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<p>Uber presented itself as a refreshing alternative to the over-bureaucratized
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world of urban transportation. But that’s a false choice. We can streamline
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sclerotic city regulators, upgrade taxi fleets and even provide users with
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fancy apps that make it easier to call a cab. The company’s binary presentation
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– us, or City Hall – frames the debate in artificial terms.<em></em>
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</p>
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<p>Uber claims that its driver rating system is a more efficient way to monitor
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drivers, but that’s an entirely unproven assumption. While taxi drivers
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have been known to misbehave, the worldwide litany of complaints against
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Uber drivers – for everything from dirty cars and <a href="http://consumerist.com/2014/07/30/uber-passenger-complains-of-spider-bite-in-filthy-car/">spider bites</a> to
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<a
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href="http://www.forbes.com/sites/ellenhuet/2014/09/30/uber-driver-hammer-attack-liability/">assault with a hammer</a>, <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/uber-nikki-williams-2014-12">fondling</a> and
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<a
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href="http://www.businessinsider.com/an-uber-driver-allegedly-raped-a-female-passenger-in-boston-2014-12">rape</a>– suggest that Uber’s system may not work as well as old-fashioned
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regulation. It’s certainly not noticeably superior.<em></em>
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</p>
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<p>In fact, <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/12/09/uber-california-lawsuit_n_6298206.html">prosecutors in San Francisco and Los Angeles</a> say
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Uber has been lying to its customers about the level and quality of its
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background checks. The company now promises it will do a better job at
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screening drivers. But it <a href="http://consumerist.com/2014/12/18/uber-reportedly-revamping-security-wont-say-exactly-what-its-doing/">won’t tell us</a> what
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measures its taking to improve its safety record, and it’s <a href="http://consumerist.com/2014/12/18/uber-reportedly-revamping-security-wont-say-exactly-what-its-doing/">fighting the kind of driver scrutiny</a> that
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taxicab companies have been required to enforce for many decades. <em></em>
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</p>
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<p>Many reports suggest that beleaguered drivers don’t feel much better about
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the company than victimized passengers do. They tell <a href="http://qz.com/299655/why-your-uber-driver-hates-uber/">horror stories</a> about
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the company’s hiring and management practices. Uber <a href="http://www.salon.com/2014/09/03/uber_unrest_drivers_in_los_angeles_protest_the_slashing_of_rates/">unilaterally slashes drivers’ rates</a>,
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while claiming they don’t need to unionize. (The <a href="http://www.fastcompany.com/3037371/the-teamsters-of-the-21st-century-how-uber-lyft-and-facebook-drivers-are-organizing">Teamsters</a> disagree.) <em></em>
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</p>
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<p>The company also pushes<a href="http://thinkprogress.org/economy/2014/11/06/3589715/uber-lending-investigation/"> sketchy, substandard loans</a> onto
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its drivers – but hey, what could go wrong?<em></em>
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</p>
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<p>Uber has many libertarian defenders. And yet, it <a href="http://pando.com/2014/10/29/uber-prs-latest-trick-impersonating-its-drivers-and-trying-to-scam-journalists/">deceives the press</a> and
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<a
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href="http://www.slate.com/blogs/the_slatest/2014/11/17/uber_exec_suggests_using_personal_info_against_journalists.html">threatens to spy on journalists</a>, <a href="http://money.cnn.com/2014/08/04/technology/uber-lyft/">lies to its own employees</a>,
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keeps its practices a secret and routinely invades the privacy of civilians
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– sometimes merely for entertainment. (It has a tool, with the Orwellian
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name the “<a href="http://www.forbes.com/sites/kashmirhill/2014/10/03/god-view-uber-allegedly-stalked-users-for-party-goers-viewing-pleasure/">God View</a>,”
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that it can use for monitoring customers’ personal movements.) <em></em>
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</p>
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<p>Aren’t those the kinds of things libertarians say they hate about <em>government</em>?<em></em>
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</p>
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<p>This isn’t a “gotcha” exercise. It matters. Uber is the poster child for
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the pro-privatization, anti-regulatory ideology that ascribes magical powers
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to technology and the private sector. It is deeply a political entity,
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from its Nietzschean name to its recent hiring of White House veteran David
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Plouffe. Uber is built around a relatively simple app (which relies on
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government-created technology), but it’s not really a tech company. Above
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all else Uber is an ideological campaign, a neoliberal project whose real
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products are deregulation and the dismantling of the social contract.<em></em>
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</p>
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<p>Or maybe, as that tweeter in Sydney suggested, they’re just assholes.<em></em>
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</p>
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<p>Either way, it’s important that Uber’s worldview and business practices
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not be allowed to “disrupt” our economy or our social fabric. People who
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work hard deserve to make a decent living. Society at large deserves access
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to safe and affordable transportation. And government, as the collective
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expression of a democratic society, has a role to play in protecting its
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citizens. <em></em>
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</p>
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<p>And then there’s the matter of our collective psyche. In her book “A Paradise
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Built in Hell: The Extraordinary Communities that Arise in Disaster,” Rebecca
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Solnit wrote of the purpose, meaning and deep satisfaction people find
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when they pull together to help one another in the face of adversity.
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But in the world Uber seeks to create, those surges of the spirit would
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be replaced by surge pricing.<em></em>
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</p>
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<p>You don’t need a “God view” to see what happens next. When heroism is
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reduced to a transaction, the soul of a society is sold cheap. <em></em>
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</p>
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</div>
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</div> |