Is Ted Cruz Satan? Discuss.

[BackInTheNewYorkGroove]

Originally Posted by ThurgreedMarshall

What I like about Uber is that I have my own rating, and it's within my control (mostly) to keep it so high that no Uber driver would ever not pick me up. Cabbies are racist assholes who frequently refuse to pick me up. So their business model can go straight down the drain for all I care.

TM

I have less of a problem with Uber here in TCOTU than I do with Air BnB. Uber here is essentially a central dispatch and payment app for the already-existing car service industry (Lyft probably has almost as much of a gripe with Uber as the taxi medallion owners do), while Air BnB is causing the creation of business owned unlicensed hotels in residential buildings. (And, yes, that happened before Air BnB, too, but not on anywhere near the same scale.)

Plus, it seems like the medallion owners here are more pissed about the city authorizing the "borough" medallions - the apple green cabs. Losing airport traffic to them, it seems.

It will be interesting, though, to see how the wage and hours cases against Uber and Lyft go. Given the fact that being an independent contractor for the Feds doesn't automatically mean that you are one in the eyes of the State of California, or New York, they've got to win them all.

[Greedy,Greedy,Greedy]

Originally Posted by BackInTheNewYorkGroove

I have less of a problem with Uber here in TCOTU than I do with Air BnB. Uber here is essentially a central dispatch and payment app for the already-existing car service industry (Lyft probably has almost as much of a gripe with Uber as the taxi medallion owners do), while Air BnB is causing the creation of business owned unlicensed hotels in residential buildings. (And, yes, that happened before Air BnB, too, but not on anywhere near the same scale.)

Plus, it seems like the medallion owners here are more pissed about the city authorizing the "borough" medallions - the apple green cabs. Losing airport traffic to them, it seems.

It will be interesting, though, to see how the wage and hours cases against Uber and Lyft go. Given the fact that being an independent contractor for the Feds doesn't automatically mean that you are one in the eyes of the State of California, or New York, they've got to win them all.

I have used and rather like Air BnB, but to rent a house near my daughter's college rather than an apartment in the city. Can't quite see the draw in renting some stranger's place for a night or two, even if it were properly licensed. But for vending vacation homes and the like seems like a good service.

[Greedy,Greedy,Greedy]

Originally Posted by Sidd Finch

Ah -- didn't realize that you represented only good guys.

But, since you are now breaking out the "racist" card, I'm going to bow out of this discussion.

Not racism per se, just a bit of sterotyping. You didn't expect that when you associated "Indian" with wage-and-hour violations?

In terms of just representing good guys, you know some of the shady side of my practice, too, but there we're dealing with rich white guys.

[Sidd Finch]

Originally Posted by Greedy,Greedy,Greedy

Not racism per se, just a bit of sterotyping. You didn't expect that when you associated "Indian" with wage-and-hour violations?

In terms of just representing good guys, you know some of the shady side of my practice, too, but there we're dealing with rich white guys.

No, I associated "India" with "having a less generous minimum wage than the US". Forgive my racist self for thinking that.

But I'm proud of you for working solely for companies that pay a living wage, that have eradicated misogyny in their communities, and that are not motivated by greed. Really!

[Sidd Finch]

Originally Posted by ThurgreedMarshall

What I like about Uber is that I have my own rating, and it's within my control (mostly) to keep it so high that no Uber driver would ever not pick me up. Cabbies are racist assholes who frequently refuse to pick me up. So their business model can go straight down the drain for all I care.

TM

But...but...but - they pay their workers a living wage! They provide benefits! And they have built a Shangri-La of respect for women, almost like what we had in the Silicon Valley before those evil Ubererrers came along!

You're just using claims of racism to justify your UMC-privilege.

[Sidd Finch]

Originally Posted by Greedy,Greedy,Greedy

I have used and rather like Air BnB, but to rent a house near my daughter's college rather than an apartment in the city. Can't quite see the draw in renting some stranger's place for a night or two, even if it were properly licensed. But for vending vacation homes and the like seems like a good service.

Nobody here but us hypocrites.

[Greedy,Greedy,Greedy]

Originally Posted by Sidd Finch

No, I associated "India" with "having a less generous minimum wage than the US".

IIRC, you represent a lot of Indian companies. Be sure to pass your views on how the need to ensure compliance with US wage-and-hour standards, regardless of whether those laws apply to them, or they will just be helping the UMC gut the economy with our desire for cheaper stuff.

Hmmm. Sorry, I guess "wage-and-hour standards" should be interpreted as "lower minimum wage" rather than "wage-and-hour violations". I'm sorry, I do not interpret your English very well. My apologies.

[Greedy,Greedy,Greedy]

Originally Posted by Sidd Finch

But...but...but - they pay their workers a living wage! They provide benefits! And they have built a Shangri-La of respect for women, almost like what we had in the Silicon Valley before those evil Ubererrers came along!

You're just using claims of racism to justify your UMC-privilege.

Now you're just saying outrageous shit. There was never a culture of respect for women in the Silicon Valley.

[Sidd Finch]

Originally Posted by Greedy,Greedy,Greedy

Hmmm. Sorry, I guess "wage-and-hour standards" should be interpreted as "lower minimum wage" rather than "wage-and-hour violations". I'm sorry, I do not interpret your English very well. My apologies.

Clearly, you don't. Possibly there are communication difficulties between Earth and the holy cloud you live on?

"US wage and hour standards," used vis-à-vis India, meant "higher wages," among other things. They aren't "violations" because Indian companies don't have to comply with US laws. Obviously, I only said that about India because I hate brown people, but it is similar to how both cab companies and car-sharing companies don't treat their drivers as employees (except, in the latter example, one is merely like corner street thug and the other is like the mob, according to words from on-high.)

[Sidd Finch]

Originally Posted by Greedy,Greedy,Greedy

Now you're just saying outrageous shit. There was never a culture of respect for women in the Silicon Valley.

I thought there was, until Uber and some other companies I never heard of before today came along? Just like all drivers were treated like they were in a worker-state utopia?

Now I'm confused. If you're going to focus so much anger at one company or person, it really should mean that you believe that things were different and better before that company/person came along.

[Sidd Finch]

Is vaccination the issue on which the GOP's anti-science wing joins with the mistrust-government wing, in a way that makes the moderates of this country finally realize that the party has lost its way in batshit-land?

I realize that the anti-vaccine movement has a large share of left-wingnuts, too. But those people don't have much sway in the primaries, it seems, so the Dems aren't pandering to them. Rand Paul actually believes this shit, I think, and other GOP candidates will fall in line to out-shout him.

[Greedy,Greedy,Greedy]

Originally Posted by Sidd Finch

Clearly, you don't. Possibly there are communication difficulties between Earth and the holy cloud you live on?

"US wage and hour standards," used vis-à-vis India, meant "higher wages," among other things. They aren't "violations" because Indian companies don't have to comply with US laws. Obviously, I only said that about India because I hate brown people, but it is similar to how both cab companies and car-sharing companies don't treat their drivers as employees (except, in the latter example, one is merely like corner street thug and the other is like the mob, according to words from on-high.)

Wait, so your thought is that somewhere my argument that Uber was organized crime because they've got an efficient way to break laws that actually apply to them here means I ought to lecture a bunch of people half-way around the world on why they should follow laws that don't apply to them at all?

Is that what you were saying?

I understand you think that because I said this about Uber I must be happily having sexual relations with yellow cabbies all over the world, even though I said nothing about cabbies or cab companies at all in my initial posts (just referred to members of the UMC as fucking Uber-Users), and that this is derived from your generally feeling that there is an Uber/Cab war out there and criticism of one means sex with the other.

I have come to understand that logic and will not try to budge you from that by, saying, criticizing cab companies, too. But, please, help me understand the way we travel from me cursing fucking Uber-users in a rant to me needing to lecture Indians on how they ought to follow American laws that don't apply to them. I have to figure out how that logic works. If you can tell me, I promise to go lecture an Indian on why they should follow American minimum wage laws in India. From a mountain.

Alternatively, if I revise my original rant to refer to members of the UMC as "fucking Heineken drinkers" or "fucking BMW drivers" can all be forgotten? Or are those things just way too nasty to say about anyone.

[Greedy,Greedy,Greedy]

Originally Posted by ThurgreedMarshall

What I like about Uber is that I have my own rating, and it's within my control (mostly) to keep it so high that no Uber driver would ever not pick me up. Cabbies are racist assholes who frequently refuse to pick me up. So their business model can go straight down the drain for all I care.

TM

Damn. Are you trying to bring a rational criticism on to the PB? I'd say good point, but it would upset Sidd. He doesn't see shades of gray very well.

[Replaced_Texan]

Originally Posted by Sidd Finch

Is vaccination the issue on which the GOP's anti-science wing joins with the mistrust-government wing, in a way that makes the moderates of this country finally realize that the party has lost its way in batshit-land?

I realize that the anti-vaccine movement has a large share of left-wingnuts, too. But those people don't have much sway in the primaries, it seems, so the Dems aren't pandering to them. Rand Paul actually believes this shit, I think, and other GOP candidates will fall in line to out-shout him.

Until this week, I thought it was the left's climate change, and I was terribly embarrassed that I'm more likely to know an anti-vaxxer through neo-hippies circles than I was through any of the oil and gas types.

[Sidd Finch]

Originally Posted by Greedy,Greedy,Greedy

Wait, so your thought is that somewhere my argument that Uber was organized crime because they've got an efficient way to break laws that actually apply to them here means I ought to lecture a bunch of people half-way around the world on why they should follow laws that don't apply to them at all?

Is that what you were saying?

I understand you think that because I said this about Uber I must be happily having sexual relations with yellow cabbies all over the world, even though I said nothing about cabbies or cab companies at all in my initial posts (just referred to members of the UMC as fucking Uber-Users), and that this is derived from your generally feeling that there is an Uber/Cab war out there and criticism of one means sex with the other.

I have come to understand that logic and will not try to budge you from that by, saying, criticizing cab companies, too. But, please, help me understand the way we travel from me cursing fucking Uber-users in a rant to me needing to lecture Indians on how they ought to follow American laws that don't apply to them. I have to figure out how that logic works. If you can tell me, I promise to go lecture an Indian on why they should follow American minimum wage laws in India. From a mountain.

Alternatively, if I revise my original rant to refer to members of the UMC as "fucking Heineken drinkers" or "fucking BMW drivers" can all be forgotten? Or are those things just way too nasty to say about anyone.

As I said, I thought the anger at Uber (comparing them to "the mob"), was extreme and misdirected, to the point of being silly.

The general snobbishness about "the UMC" and "gutting the economy," as if you are not part of the former and not participating in (what you characterize as) the latter is enjoyable, but I think not in the way you intend.

Rant away. Throw in some comments about misogyny and accusations of "stereotyping" (not "racism," because that's much different) -- it can only make you more convincing, really.