Capitalism and nature are two completely separate things. One is a man made system. The other is a system that made man. We have the power to control our own systems and we have been doing so for millennia. We don't have the power to control nature, it still controls us.
The problem arises when Über and Lyft have their way and bring about an end to public transportation but refuse to have any outside regulation.
The article is about more than Uber, the article is about how a whole generation of tech entrepreneurs seem to have almost no understanding of why we have regulated markets in the first place.
Are you implying that Uber has no impact on the shape and nature of the market of taxi cabs and drivers in the cities they serve?
Because that seems pretty hard to swallow given how much people crow about Uber disrupting markets.
Uber does help define the landscape of drivers and availability. There are other sorts of pricing models they could even follow. Why not charge a little bit more during off peak times, and then turn around and incentivize drivers using the subsidy from off-peak hours, rather than dumping it all on individuals traveling during points of tumult/crisis?
There are a lot of models between the awful medallion system many cities have and the way that Uber works right now. And frankly as much as i hate how taxis work in a lot of US cities, and as much as i love the user experience that Uber delivers, they certainly should not be immune to criticism, especially over issues like this.
> Why not charge a little bit more during off peak times, and then turn around and incentivize drivers using the subsidy from off-peak hours, rather than dumping it all on individuals traveling during points of tumult/crisis?
Because someone else would start up with a pricing model of charging less during off-peak hours, providing no service whatsoever during weather situations, and the pricing model would fail.
It can be done at the government level - tax cab rides, then use the proceeds to subsidize those at other times, but it can't reasonably be done by one company unilaterally. The medallion system sort of does this, by fixing both price and supply. It's probably suboptimal, though.
Uber is not responsible for a lack of drivers in an emergency situation.
Uber can also not prevent competitors from entering the market, so the monopoly pricing fears make no sense.