/n
Taxis and public transportation systems SUCK. At least within the Los Angeles area.
It's obscene to pay regular taxi fares. You can take the bus but good luck getting anywhere within a reasonable time and with the risk of some stupid random event that slows the process down. Not to mention the cognitive taxation of being around strangers of varying quality. It's not something you think about until you're in the bus and you're standing up and the guy behind you smells and the bus is stuck in godamn traffic and you have 30 more godamn stops to go...
Uber and Lyft and the other ride-sharing apps are positively godamn humanitarian in comparison to having to use the other options.
I have strong feelings because discussions that focus on the needs and wants of bus drivers and taxi drivers ignores the heavy taxation laid onto the customer for the crime of not having a car (at least in LA). I would rather a hundred thousand more rides accomplishing the personal goals of a hundred thousand people than a thousand pensions for a thousand bus drivers.
(I think the next hurdle for LA Public Transit is express busses / trains, that DON'T stop everywhere.)
I don't think the same standard of employee protection applies to something like being a driver. I don't think you could apply the heavy hand of regulation without fucking over more people than you think. The moment you get the modern state on in, you get professional rentiers sniffing out any holes they can put roots in.
This isn't children being abused by clothing factories. These are an entirely new class of people and provider who are enabled by the fact that the regulatory appartus doesn't choke them before they even make their first step.