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I love the way everyone praises these new tech entrepreneurs (in reality, their entrepreneurialism is more to do with the manipulation of legal fictions) as âdisruptiveâ before realising that no, theyâre just dicks.
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Donât be an ass; both parties are to blame. Claiming otherwise is similar to the stories con artists tell themselves to feel better about what they do.
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Yet I-- as just some random guy-- canât open a personal bank account in Belgium, Holland, France, or England, because the banks there donât want the hassles of dealing with the US Government. I guess my account balance doesnât have enough digits. Go figure.
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Please do not engage with the douchebags. I know you mean well, but no one that works or has constraints in their life believes their âmoralityâ, and tying up actual discussion space by answering their justifications for thievery addresses no real issue.
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Thatâs depressing.
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Uber DISRUPTS the âdriversâ to the point of a non livable wage, and now Uber wants to âoffshoreâ to a tax haven to DISRUPT the USA. I see a pattern of DISRUPTION here.
#FTFY
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accuse them of being unpatriotic, and/or un-American. Itâs more visceral, and therefore likely to gain more traction.
The great task is associating those adjectives with not paying taxes.
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It really isnât that hard to understand. They are dumping their money into expanding as quickly as they physically can.
There are in fact incremental costs to running a business like this. There are background checks on drivers, customer service, legal costs, insurance costs. There are some fixed costs like translation to new languages. Some are somewhere in between like mapping to ensure the car stops where you actually are (address â GPS coordinates isnât a solved problem nor is GPS accuracy).
The biggest sink hole though is likely their marketing campaigns for when they move into a new area. This includes things like charging riders below-cost for rides, advertising to get drivers, advertising to get riders, etc.
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Disruption breeds dickishness pretty well, Iâve noticed
Thatâs part of what theyâre doing.
But, as this news demonstrates, what theyâre also doing is dumping their money into offshore tax havens.
Do that, and Uber-US can stay zero-profit for as long as it likes: if the US company makes $50 squillion profit, the Panama holding company charges a $50 squillion licence fee for the use of the IP.
Itâs legal because the rich wrote the laws. No other reason.
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Somehow I missed the memo that âsharing economyâ work was supposed to provide a middle class wage.
Aw, câmon; thereâs plenty of blame to go 'round.
Not that âblameâ ever solves any problems or makes anything any better, mind youâŚ
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Because theyâre paying a shedload of money to license their logo from some Fly by night Bermudan company thatâs got them by the short and curlies.
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Blame all the fuckwads, theyâre in it together fucking with the rest of us, after all.
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The world of David Brinâs novel Earth takes place after the global populace has risen up against the ultra-elite, and literally gone to war against the tax havens.
Itâs a great vision, anywayâŚ
I think the problem is these are âSecond Waveâ Silicon valley entrepreneurs.
When Jobs talked about making a product âinsanely greatâ or Page and Brin talked about Googleâs ânot being evil,â they were being sincere. Money wasnât their primary motivation.
When Uber comes in, all theyâre thinking about is the money: "Let's dominate and innovate the taxi/limousine industry and squeeze out every penny we can, in any way we can. Let's be evil."
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ETA:
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Geez, they send out memos like that?
