What is the thinking error where you ignore the message of the post and focus on semantics to change the subject?

Because the times NEVER change. False equivalency. American capitalism is the most corrupt it has ever been. But your sig tells me all I need to know about you.

Why the hell would anyone want to pay $30 to travel a mile or two in third-world conditions?

Hyperbolic much? No cab company charges $30 for a 1-2 mile trip. That's less than $10 (including a tip) in every cab in every city I've been in. I suspect you are an Uber driver or astroturfer since your whole post is fucking ridiculously dramatic.

And as they become ful time drivers, the service will become indestinguishable from a taxi service.

Uber already IS indistinguishable from a taxi service, with the single exception that they don't pick up flags (which makes no difference all but large metro markets). Nearly ALL Uber drivers work 8-12 hour shifts in vehicles they bought (or lease from uber at usury rates, between 1k-2k a month) specifically to drive for Uber.

Uber has succeeded in remaking the cab market and externalizing all equipment costs and liability to the drivers, all while actually even paying them (unbelievably) less than the chicken-scratch cab drivers already make, and all the while pretending they do something different than charge money for a ride somewhere. Many drivers are making 3-4 dollars an hour after vehicle maintenance, depreciation, taxes, water and snacks for passengers, and Uber's 20% and assorted fees.. The new standard on the 'Pay' on the Uber driver forums is drivers making less than the IRS per-mile exemption rate of 40 something cents a mile. And UberX is actually more expensive (at base rate, non-surge) than every single cab company in my town of 250k.

I've driven cab (three years now) and for Uber (recently for a month), and I will never drive for Uber again. Aside from the fact that a single poor rating from a drunk moron that I refuse to let bring a sloshing open tallboy in my car can deactivate me, driving for UberX is working for free (and I wasn't even on the hook for a car payment or lease). Most people aren't figuring this out until after they drive for a few months and quit, but by then Uber has lured in a new crop of suckers with spammed craigslist ads promising '45-90k in your spare time'. I hope Uber does replace taxis and become the only show in town, just so I can watch all the fucking Uber evangelists start bitching about how Uber actually became MUCH WORSE (already happening) than the taxi companies they replaced.

I'm sure I'll get flamed for writing this as a driver, but the simple fact of the matter is that Uber had a chance to make improvements over the current system for drivers and riders, and it colossally blew it by choosing to be absurdly greedy and shady. It temporarily improved service for riders in large medallion based markets, but has shown overall that they don't give a fuck about passengers or drivers, and I guarantee you, I ABSOLUTELY GUARANTEE you, in 2-3 years, it will be far worse than what it replaces.

It's more like Uber proved that a few billion makes you above the law. Why should cab drivers give a fuck about following the laws if Uber doesn't bother.

Or just eat fucking plants? There's plenty of protein in the plant world. You fucking meat eaters are ruining the fucking planet, and torturing billions of creatures annually because you like the taste.

YES! Isn't it super satisfying making broad generalizations about the quality of human beings based on which consumer technology they own?

So all things being equal, you're asking me who I trust with my best interests more, Nature or Monsanto?

But this is America. Where any attempt to regulate or otherwise hold corporations accountable is met with a hyperbolic "ERMAGAWD, SOCIALISM!' Imagine what kind of reaction you'd get from "AW MA GAWD, GUBMINT INNERNET!" Americans have been well trained to completely disregard their own self-interests for fairy-tales shilled by corporate owned media.

You guys crack me up. One day Slashdot is in a furor over revelations that the overstepping government is voraciously cataloguing and sifting through your personal data, the next you happily buzz about *paying money* for technologies that make government big data collection of your purchases, travel info, communications, lifestyle, reading, etc... more and more convenient and irresistible. It's hard to feel sorry for people that so willingly hand their freedom over, for novelty, time after time, and learn nothing. America will be the first panopticon, and you will all deserve it.

Because being skeptical about the safety of a fully robotic vehicle is the same as fearing glorified cruise control and 3mph assisted parallel parking. Congratulations for making the stupidest argument I've seen all day.

I know right?!?! I'm so tired of these mom-and-pop companies like Uber and Amazon getting hassled by all these book-store and multi-thousand dollar local cab company cartels!

It seems pretty obvious to me that the 'hactivists' are exactly what they profess the desire to overthrow. They are deciding that its bes tfor people not to see these websites, and therefore not decide for themselves. Some freedom fighters... If they really belived in the opposing force here, in this case the Democrats, they would be confident that their (the Dems) message, weighed against the Repub's message, would be enough for people to make a valid and respectable choice. But to say, "ets silence one of their outlets of expression, so only one side can be heard' is exactly the kind of oppression that these morons think they are fighting. What a bunch of fools.