The Daily News ran my letter to the editor today in response to Chuck Pezeshki’s column.
I would like to thank Chuck Pezeshki for pointing us to Tim O’Reilly’s new book (“His View: ‘Terminator’ movie’s Skynet is already here,” April 28).
My [freshman] college physics professor was fond of saying, “when something gets better, something gets worse.” This proverb plays out around us daily. Wikipedia brought about the demise of the print edition of the Encyclopædia Britannica. While we’re no longer killing trees to update an ever-changing referencing system, we’re necessarily eliminating the jobs in that once reliable market.
Similarly, the rise of ridesharing companies has reaped great benefits for passengers. Government taxi medallions sold for $250,000 each in San Francisco, inflating the cost of taxi services. Drivers were dispatched according to which driver was waiting the longest rather than which car was closest to a passenger.
Along came Uber. You can get a ride within three minutes. The cars are clean and new, the drivers friendly and helpful. Drivers and passengers rate one another to help ensure quality products and considerate consumers. Drivers can choose to work part-time when it is convenient and yet still get paid more than regular taxi drivers. When demand is high and more cars are needed, surge pricing gives drivers more incentive to work, guaranteeing shorter waits.But when something gets better, something gets worse. Cities lost revenue due to plummeting medallion prices. Taxi drivers lost rides because of their noncompetitive 20th century business model.
How do we choose who gets to be the winners and losers in the information economy? Do we outlaw Wikipedia to prevent the demise of the Encyclopædia Britannica? Do we outlaw Uber because of crashing medallion prices and taxi fares? Do we outlaw massive open online courses for fear of bringing deregulation and competition to higher education? What will the equivalent of Uber do to the entrenched education industrial complex, and will it necessarily be a bad thing?
Dale Courtney
Moscow