Hacker News new | ask | show | jobs
by mabbo 3145 days ago
Can't wait. I've used Uber frequently for a long time, but every other story in the news about them is that their leadership are just terrible human beings. I don't want to deal with them as a company.

Much like the drivers, I simply want what Uber is offering and have no loyalty to the company itself. If Lyft wants to come to Toronto and offer the same thing without being Uber, I'll gladly switch.

1 comments

I would use Lyft or Uber in Toronto, whichever is convenient at that point of time. If you start to boycott companies which are not ethical in doing their business, well almost all companies are. Lets start with Amazon with their sweat shop warehouses, Garment manufacturing outsourced to workers in Bangladesh working in deadly conditions. No corporations are saints.
(This isn't meant as a personal attack on the parent comment. Their opinion is common and I've held it myself in the past)

I really dislike this line of thinking. It's profoundly cynical and sees change as impossible.

Corporations do bad things. I can comment on that and refuse to do business with some of them and not others. I don't have to uproot my whole life and become a mountain ascetic to earn the moral purity necessary to acknowledge a single evil.

We can address one bad thing without addressing every bad thing at once.

To add to the sibling comment here, when you have a realistic choice, you can choose the better one. Lyft is a clear matching competitor, and if you can afford any small price differences, you have no excuses. Amazon doesn't really have a competitor. While some can afford fair trade clothing, most cannot. Just because no company is perfect and sometimes supporting pretty shitty practices is more or less unavoidable doesn't mean you have no choice in every scenario every time.
"Saint or GTFO" is a poor tactic against even the most minimally aware opponent.
It's important to choose companies that you like - and behavior is a key component of that. Sometimes you have no choice but to deal with unfavorable companies, but if there is an option you should consider all aspects when purchasing.
It's a huge mistake to do nothing because you can't do everything.