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Comment by viraptor | Hacker News Reader

Why would they pull out? Taxis existed before Uber and others. Either a) Uber at scale can't compete with local taxi service which will return pretty quickly, (so Uber would die anyway in a long run) or b) they will be completely fine with a few tweaks around scheduling / number is drivers.

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> Taxis existed before Uber and others.

To be fair, taxi service in seattle was quite awful during the pre-uber times. It was usually best to pretend they didn't exist unless you were at a location they congregated frequently (the airport, for example).

Hopefully, the prompt and transparent service that came with Uber is here to stay even if the company itself isn't.

This is true about pre-Uber taxi service. But it has improved largely due to Uber competition.

It would suck to lose Uber and Lyft, but I don’t think it would be long for a competing local service to pop up.

Need to make sure taxis have to pay this minimum wage too... let's see how that works.

And/or raise prices on consumers who are using the drivers who have to be paid more. That seems like a component of any solution to the issue.

Which seems fine. A service that isn't paying the minimum wage isn't competing fairly.

Edit: Typo. If you aren't paying a minimum wage, you ARE NOT competing fairly.

> A service that isn't paying the minimum wage is competing fairly.

Did you mean to say it this way? Presumably "fairly" would be abiding by the same rules as the competition, including paying a minimum wage?

Whoops, fixed!

As long as Ubers and taxis are subject to the same rules, I'm fine with it. If this minimum wage requirement does not also apply to taxi drivers, then it's very suspect to me.

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