[brandon272]

Where I live, Uber charges less than half of what cab companies charge. But there are other ancillary benefits. Uber could be at parity with the cab companies but I would still prefer it because of:

1) Their app 2) The reliability of getting car with them vs. waiting for a cab. 3) Their vehicles are much, much, much nicer than cabs in my area. 4) The purchase experience.

[onion2k]

Where I live, Uber charges less than half of what cab companies charge.

Have you ever asked yourself how they do that? It's not like taxi drivers are fabulously wealthy.

[et-al]

Yeah, that's always been one of my points: existing cab fares are probably already close to the the price to sustain a business and pay a living wage.

Like you said, cab drivers (and probably cab company owners) aren't exactly fatcats. Meanwhile what's Travis Kalanick's net worth? How much are they paying top engineers at Uber?

Don't get me wrong, there's definitely corruption and protectionism in the existing taxi industry, but I fail to see how the low $5-7 fares are anywhere near sustainable. Is the revenue from surge pricing enough to offset the current discount?

[brandon272]

I don't like to assume anything about the wealth of professions when I do not know the economics of their industry. I have seen a lot of businesses over the years that I assumed were barely scraping by that were actually making a killing.

Aren't cab drivers in major cities dealing with the purchase or lease of million dollar cab medallions? I believe that could factor into higher prices for consumers.