I was listening to a TV show when I heard it first; people can be “black listed” from Uber and I am assuming Lyft and other ride companies. I then started to see articles on the etiquette of being a “good rider” and all made me laugh so hard. I am just wondering how much more pain are the people going to dish to each other.
The pattern is the same and frankly it is getting boring. Think how previously you could call a cab and tell him/her how you want to go from A to B, after all you are paying for the ride. And aside from NYC and Chicago cab drivers, also known as the world most arrogant drivers, the drivers accommodated the customer in any possible way.
Here comes the “ride companies”, first they promised great jobs, which now people realizing is a lie. Second they promised the investors a great “technology”, which is utterly ridiculous. But most importantly they are destroying the “infrastructure” and once they control the market and there are no more traditional taxis, they are not only going to set their rules on the drivers but on the riders as well. And you have no choice but to say yes master.
The same thing has been happening in many industries, in particular the health care insurance industry. First they came in and lured doctors with high paying guaranteed compensations. And as soon as a simple MRI cost became $5k+, and you doctor’s visit became $300+ if you do not have insurance, now the consumer has to participate in some kind of insurance or be left without health care. And once they controlled the consumer they went back tot he doctors. Ask any doctor today and they will tell you that their share of the office visit has been on the decline. And the only way for the doctors to keep up is by cutting overheads and being part of a “system”. So most sold their practices to a “system” and now we have Walartization of health care. The funny part is in most places the “system” is owned by a health insurance company. They now control your health care (you and the doctor) and make decisions in regard to your life based on their bottom line not your flat line. And, the game continues.
Most people have no options where they live in choosing healthy care insurance, hospital or cable company for that matter. But god help us if we say “socialism”. In fact it is worse than that, because you pay capitalist prices and you are getting socialist service or care. Just think how long you have to be on hold to get someone from your “health system” to talk to you. And how in the past you used to see a doctor and you see a “provider”. And your so called “doctor” is not a certified moron so what do you think the “provider” is? In most cases it is some wannabee with couple of courses on line and a useless degree. What a deal, higher a practically monkey to deal with your health care and pay him/her a fraction of what a real doctor should get paid. After all, the latter are not needed since now your insurance/system decide on whether you get an MRI, procedure, operation, etc. It is under the “pre-approval” provision of your health insurance and the decision is made by a “committee” of bigger morons then those you see in your doctor’s office. You never get to see these idiots or talk to them, because it is all through the “system” and you have to go through “customer service”. And if you do not like something you can petition and re-petition and here goes the marry run around. Any time you hear the word “customer service” know that you are being shafted and they do not want to resolve the issue, they want to address your concern and respond to your requests in timely manner.
If you knew that Uber CEO is Mr Khosrowshahi, none of this would surprise you. He climbed the “ladder” to fame after being in Expedia as a CEO and doing a great job there. That great job was about imposing the same sort of monopoly on the hotel business (currently there is only two companies, Expedia and Price Line) that control all the bookings (under all kind of bogus independent-looking names) in the country. Once that monopoly was set, now they can tell the hotel what they are going to pay, just like the medical insurance tell your doctor what he is getting paid, and charge the consumer up to 30% in “booking fees”. And there is no other alternative. It is the same low life tactics that Dara brings to Uber and before you know it, there will be an Uber/Lyft chapter in the new testament. Why not there is already the book of Job, despite the fact that the apple is the main source of human misery and expulsion of the human race from heaven.
This “financial terminator” model has been in effect since the 70s. That is the borrowing from the “future unrealized gains” to pay for current losses. In most cases that is how start up work. Some investor risk some money to get paid very large some of money in the future and the risk is to lose their investments. But what has been added is the “build in” mechanism of rubbery. Take Uber again, they are subsidizing drivers because their business model does not work. They started with very generous pay and the more market share the have – control – the subsidies are getting less and less. They are loosing 1B dollar a year to “defend market share”. But at one point, there will be no competition and they have to make money from the business, and there is no way you can do that, the margin just does not exist if you do the math right. Most Uber and Lyft driver will make more money sitting at home rather than driving.
The same model is being adapted by Amazon, they are willing to sell products at extremely low margins (233 billions of sale vs 10 billion of income in 2018 – less than 4.5% ratio and last quarter then have 8.6 billion negative cash flow – for 24 year old company with a “Trillion” dollar value) just to compete with Walmart or department stores. That looks pretty good when you have growing sales proportionate to “losses or expenses”. But at one point you have to create sustainable cash flow and then they will realize that the math is not going to make sense.