Comment Re:yet if we did it (Score 1) 463
It's the vast majority of our first-hand experience. Covers at least five major American cities, both coasts and the Rustbelt.
It's the vast majority of our first-hand experience. Covers at least five major American cities, both coasts and the Rustbelt.
Yeah - lick that boot!
So the law makes the cops above the law. Sorry bud, legal-formalist arguments don't change the functional reality: the cops are not held to the same standards of conduct they brutally enforce on the people.
I too am not a big fan of the police, but that's a hateful slander of the majority police who work hard and are good people.
Nah dude, that's just a bigmedia bullshit line. In my first-hand experience, and in the experience of many other people with whom I've spoken, the vast majority of police are scum sucking bullies who prefer harassing decent citizens over confronting real criminals. That's my experience as a middle class white guy, and most people say the police abuse is even worse if one is poor and/or brown.
Too bad (TLA-sponsored?) spam has made it impractical for an individual to operate their own mail server.
This is what we call "due process." It's intended to prevent a small group of private citizens with an agenda from burning witches.
So what you're saying is, "due process" is utterly and miserably failing at its intended purpose?
It's not really a big deal as a one off thing, because any damned fool who will open his eyes can see no special skills are required to drive passengers in an ordinary car. The function of the professional license in this case is to restrict employment mobility, nothing else.
FWIW, I don't plan on asking my local DMV. There's a 4-hour line to do anything there... and I'm 99% sure after waiting in that line, they'd tell me they don't know or care why a professional license is required. Either that, or they'd tell me there is another 2-hour line to wait in if I want someone to tell me they don't know/care. SF DMV is a texbook example of government inefficiency, sloth, and intransigence.
Depending what you mean by "limo" - is it a regular black Lincoln Town Car, or is it one of those 50ft long behemoths? - some special skill may be required. Certainly I imagine driving a city bus would be rather more challenging than driving an ordinary car.
the law is still on their side
Fun fact: most genocides throughout history have been considered "lawful" by their perpetrators. (No, professional licensing is not similar to genocide. Yes, lawfulness is always an unpersuasive argument.)
Actually I don't really see it as a money grab. The big effect of most professional license regimes is to restrict an individual's freedom to earn a living. It's not enough just to be a person who is good enough at driving to freely attract willing passengers. No - one must be a cabbie - it's more than work, it's caste. This is a small part of a vast cultural trend moving toward neofeudal servility.
Why should they need a special license? What kind of special skill is required when driving with a passenger, that is not required when driving solo?
I suspect that our onerous licensing requirements lower the quality of taxi drivers, by reducing the pool of candidates to those willing to jump thru obnoxious hoops.
I don't know why anyone would want to hop in a car with someone of dubious character, who may or may not have proper insurance, who may or may not have a proper driver's licence, who might be driving a jalopy in any sort of condition
Wait I'm confused. Are you talking about the city taxi system or Uber/Lyft? The average licensed cabbie 'round here is way more dubious of character than the average Uber driver. Cabbies are also way crazier drivers, again on average. That said, because they drive crazy/aggressive/fast/dangerous, the cabbies usually get there just a bit quicker.
In NY, ask the people in the outer boroughs if they can get cabs.
Hell, ask the bankers in the UES if they can get a cab headed downtown during morning rush...
Here's a fun exercise: Go to your nearest big city. (I'm gonna guess you're not somewhere that you actually ever ride in a cab.) Do a little research, and find a neighborhood that is both A) reputed to be poor and violent, and B) a long way from downtown, the airport, or anything else interesting. Then hail a cab, and before you even hop in, tell the driver where you're headed. See how well that works out for you.
I gave an Uber driver a bad rating because he didn't know where he was going and took a long route. Uber refunded the the difference between a reasonable route's fare and what I had been charged. I thought it was pretty good service. Not sure if that's what you mean by "ripped off" since there's no driver-passenger money transaction.
I bet if the driver had mugged me (while on the clock working?!) Uber would have cooperated with the cops to catch him. Not that SF cops would have given a shit or made the slightest attempt to solve the crime, but I digress...
Now if Uber itself started ripping people off... well there's a big fat $17B target for the class action lawyers.
Those who can, do; those who can't, write. Those who can't write work for the Bell Labs Record.
