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"It’s hard to explain just how much economists love Uber."
Jftr, I don't love Uber in the least, and I'm not only saying this as an economist, but also as someone who knows more about this particular subject than 95% of economists. Unlike Google, Uber was never not evil.
"Economists love Uber because it’s the closest you can get to taking the pure economic theory of textbooks and summoning it to life."
The problem with that is 1. Uber's business model is straight up monopoly rents or bust, 2. textbook economics is toxic waste in mobility.
"Uber created a massive open market, governed first and foremost by the forces of supply and demand."
Probably the biggest piece of bunkus. Transportation is first and foremost governed by the things transportation science looks at, a field quite distinct from economics.
Clearly @qz has never heard of it, and I from my experience most economists haven't either. One of the things transportation science deals with is the prevention of bodily harm, not in small part bc cars can become dangerous weapons in the wrong hands.
"Along the way it broke up the taxi monopoly"
There was never a taxi monopoly. Indeed the taxicab industry was dominated by small players. Inefficiencies and the need for regulation in taxicab are largely the result of circumstances "textbook economics" doesn't address.
Jftr, I don't love Uber in the least, and I'm not only saying this as an economist, but also as someone who knows more about this particular subject than 95% of economists. Unlike Google, Uber was never not evil.
Uber\u2019s secret weapon is its team of economists https://t.co/4Lvqr1hTC2
— Quartz (@qz) October 14, 2018
"Economists love Uber because it’s the closest you can get to taking the pure economic theory of textbooks and summoning it to life."
The problem with that is 1. Uber's business model is straight up monopoly rents or bust, 2. textbook economics is toxic waste in mobility.
"Uber created a massive open market, governed first and foremost by the forces of supply and demand."
Probably the biggest piece of bunkus. Transportation is first and foremost governed by the things transportation science looks at, a field quite distinct from economics.
Clearly @qz has never heard of it, and I from my experience most economists haven't either. One of the things transportation science deals with is the prevention of bodily harm, not in small part bc cars can become dangerous weapons in the wrong hands.
"Along the way it broke up the taxi monopoly"
There was never a taxi monopoly. Indeed the taxicab industry was dominated by small players. Inefficiencies and the need for regulation in taxicab are largely the result of circumstances "textbook economics" doesn't address.