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Comment by azinman2 | Hacker News Reader

Good for the PPA. Regardless of the laws being stuck in time or not, uber has repeatedly defied laws especially in California where they specifically are told your ride share is illegal shut it down, and they don't. Sad for the drivers but they themselves should also be more aware of the laws that apply. Bad on uber for not even explaining the possibility which of course they know about.

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If a law is unjust, a man is not only right to disobey it, he is obligated to do so. -Thomas Jefferson

This has never been more true when it comes to ride sharing companies.

Monopolies benefit next to nobody, while Uber benefits a lot of people.

"If a law is unjust, a man is not only right to disobey it, he is obligated to do so. -Thomas Jefferson This has never been more true when it comes to ride sharing companies."

Seriously? Never been more true?

Prohibiting unlicensed rides-for-hire (it's not 'ride sharing') is more unjust than say...Jim Crow laws?

Nothing important happened before the Internet.

He pretty clearly said "... never been more true when it comes to ride sharing companies."

Perhaps I embellished my argument slightly.

Obviously defeating the taxi monopolies is less important than defeating slavery.

Your original comment is fine, waterlesscloud is mis-paraphrasing you to make a point.

>>This has never been more true when it comes to ride sharing companies.

___"WHEN IT COMES TO RIDE SHARING COMPANIES"___, that part of the sentence is important. As in, you didn't say "when it comes to human rights!" or something overly-dramatic like that. You reduced the scope to only ride sharing. And I'm assuming you didn't edit your comment after the replies.

>And I'm assuming you didn't edit your comment after the replies.

No, I did not. Thank you for backing me up there.

I was a bit confused as to his protest of my wording of the comment. I certainly did not mean to say that ride sharing is the most important debate of our time.

I only meant that the quote is perfectly fitting to the current situation surrounding ride sharing and the taxi monopolies.

Obviously so, it inconveniences young well-off white people.

I think you mentally inserted the word "than" between his words "true" and "when". If he had written it that way, then your indignation would be justified. As it is written, it means that when it comes to ride sharing companies, that quote rings true in a profound way.

The way you misread it, it would indeed seem to say that the situation with ride sharing companies violating the law is exactly what old Thomas Jefferson was talking about. But you misread it, obviously.

I probably did mentally insert "than", but that doesn't make it any less absurd to use a Jefferson quote in an attempt to elevate this to some sort of righteous crusade.

I'm totally missing any "profundity" here, sorry.

I'll respectfully disagree; the point was that civil disobedience is valid and necessary when a law is absurd or doesn't serve the good of the people. The fact that one of our founding fathers said it makes it no less relevant or profound today.

And I don't even like Uber; I think in general they treat their drivers like crap, and I realize that they are only flouting this law because it stands in the way of their business model. But just as with Tesla (a company I do respect), they are breaking new ground and showing the rest of the country that these archaic laws exist only to protect the establishment. The laws should be reexamined, and if the people find that the laws are incompatible with their needs, the laws should be changed.

Today I learned that I am obligated to sign up as an UberX driver. I don't really need the money and I'd rather do other things in my spare time, but if TJ says I've got to, then I've got to.

You can certainly disobey the taxi monopoly rules in other ways.

I pay friends for "gas" when they come and pick me up drunk at the bar, for example. It's not really much different than hiring out UberX.

"I regret that I have but one scion xb to give to the profits of my company."

Not a real Jefferson quote.

http://www.monticello.org/site/jefferson/spurious-quotations

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