Debate Magazine

When It's Somebody Else's Money You Don't Care.

Posted on the 15 July 2017 by Markwadsworth @Mark_Wadsworth

This is usually hailed as a problem with the public sector, but, as an attitude, it's much more universal. Take Uber. What Uber charges is basically rent for the use of its app. Its unavoidable input costs are pretty close to zero in the grand scheme of things - a few people to keep the computers running happily. Yet "Uber has raised about $11.5 billion from 14 rounds of venture capital and private equity investors" and in 2014 it lost $671M against a net revenue of $495M and in 2016 its reported loss was $2.8Bn on a net revenue of $6.5Bn. Quite apart from wondering where all the money is going, you have to wonder why the owners of the company don't do anything about it.
As a side effect, it is reported in Wikipedia "The increased usage of Uber and other ride-sharing companies has negatively affected the values of taxi medallions in many cities. Many banks that lent money against medallions as collateral faced increasing risks of default." thus demonstrating that the value of the "medallions" (permits) is simply rent.


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