The passengers are benefitting from it.

Uh, wrong.

"Uber says drivers make around $19 per hour in the top 20 U.S. markets."

Before or after paying the costs of driving?

Apparently for all the economic-related punditry, HN still doesn't understand economics. Jim, you do realize that "inflated" (relative term of course, since Uber is more expensive than taxis in some markets) is still part of the supply-demand curve, no? You absolutely have both. Go read a textbook before you chime in next time, k?

> or do you want supply and demand? You can't have both

There's tons of examples where supply-and-demand gets balanced with other considerations. It doesn't have to be all-or-nothing.