Quoting the lemon market theory (a pre-internet theory with only weak empirical justification) is the usual nonsensical armchair economics. Taxis and used car sales are not even remotely comparable. One is hugely complicated leading to a disparity of information, the other is about as simple as it gets. More than that, Uber provides substantially more information than a usual taxi driver, which works fully against the lemon market problem. To be clear, the current (legal) taxi product is a lemon.
Youâre being disingenuous if you suggest that this is about safety. A refreshing perspective would be for them to say âhmm, clearly the legislation is not working properly, letâs work out how we provide safe taxis whilst allowing a greater level of competition in the internet era.â. If they were chanting that whilst smashing the cars, I might have more sympathy for them.
Shipping is the same yellow padded pack for one or for ten. The logistics-associated waste is higher on the indirect, more expensive supply chain. Consider also the environmental cost of transportation of all the employees involved there. Finding that the module works, and buying another one, not only results in twice the money to spend (and also count the environmental impact of having to make those money, all the externalities involved) but also in duplication of all the other costs including transportation of me to/from the shop.
Your calculations are a bit short-sighted.
You are confusing âavailable/possibleâ with âviableâ.
A choice can be technically available, but if the other requirements (e.g. me liking it enough) are not satisfied, it is not viable.
FTFY.
That depends on the context. If I am not too tired, and the waiting times arenât catastrophical, I opt for that. Sometimes it is not practical - if the cost of having to cope with the adverse factors (stress, time, luggage to haulâŚ) of that option is higher than the cost of a taxi/uber, the latter becomes more practical.
See? Itâs just engineering. Requirements, costs, benefits. Whatâs the total cost, across all factors, of all the options? Which ones are the cost-effective enough to implement?
Do you think theyâd not prefer to use taxis if that choice was viable (most often, financially sustainable) for them? Public transportation sucks. It may just be the least sucky, most viable option at the given context. I know, I usually use it when I cannot avoid transportation entirely.
