Posted on 03/22/2018 9:43:27 AM PDT by GrandJediMasterYoda
Cabbie blamed Uber, Lyft for financial woes before hanging himself
A yellow-cab driver hanged himself because of financial ruin that he blamed on ride-hail apps such as Uber and Lyft — the fourth such suicide in the last four months, authorities said Wednesday.
Nicanor Ochisor, 65, was found in the garage of his Maspeth, Queens, home by his adult son on Friday, according to Richard Lipsky of the Taxi Medallion Owners and Drivers Association.
Ochisor is the first medallion owner to end his life over the flagging industry, he said.
Ochisor backed his home mortgage on his medallion, and planned to use the license to finance his retirement — but his dreams faded as the value of medallions plummeted from $1 million to around $180,000 over the last five years.
(Excerpt) Read more at nypost.com ...
The blame falls on NYCity for charging $50,000 for a ‘medallion’ so you can drive a cab.
(I think that is the price, someone else said it might be $250,000- how the hell can you operate a business with that kind of cost)
Can’t defeat capitalism. Many have tried. All have failed.
Nobody who pays $1 million for a taxi medallion would ever be described as “working class” by any objective measure.
Not that they charged that but that they allowed bidding for it, that’s what drove it so high and this guy Duh Blasio totally pulled the rug out from under them. It’s sort of like bidding for a store license that sells specific goods and you buy it, and then the city allows another store selling the same goods as you only those people don’t have to buy a license. So now you are stuck with this license that has a value of nothing because nobody is going to buy it from you
You pays your money, you takes your chances.
A lot of them chip in and take out loans for it.
Lesson Learned: Don’t invest in monopolies backed by a corrupt government.
Uber and Lyft do not have to buy a medallion. Gee I wonder why.
...
The law is on their side and they have good lawyers.
You pays your money, you takes your chances.
...
Yep. This is the same as any other investment gone bad.
Ronald Reagan warned us that a government powerful enough to give us everything we wanted was also going to powerful enough to take it away, didn't he?
The price is whatever the market will bear.
As for why Uber drivers don't need a medalion: It's because the medallion gives you the right to pick people up at random off the street. Limousine services have never needed a medallion. Uber is just a car service. You call Uber-they come and pick you up-no medallion needed.
What are you gonna do? The guy profiled in the story owned a buggy whip factory. Life's like that, sometimes
Big cities like NYC and Boston rigged the medallion system to limit the number of medallions available. It was a classic fascist setup in the classic meaning of fascism or corporatism, if you wish. The taxi cab companies liked it because it locked out competition so they could keep prices up in an effective monopoly. The taxi cab company owners kicked campaign cash to the politicians to keep the system going.
Prices for medallions in NYC climbed. $1M in 2011. And climbed. $1.3M in 2014.
And then Uber happened and it did the classic end-run around a stale insider club system that didn’t give a rat’s ass about the customers, but maintaining the status quo.
By 2017, medallions were changing ownership for $200K. In Boston, medallions fell from a high of $700K to $70K.
“When government tries to manage supply and demand, it inevitably generates shortages, poor service, and corruption. Even with good intentions, regulators cannot yield fairer and more flexible outcomes than a market made up of millions of autonomous buyers and sellers.”
If poor Nicanor thought he had it bad due to Uber and Lyft, then he should have gone to be a driver for them.
He would offed himself long before now. Based on the crappy pay those divers get - they actually earn far less than minimum wage.
Socialists need Millenials to get elected.
Millenials have a love affair with Uber and Lyft.
People who hold the electoral prospects of Leftists in their hands will win everytime. The “workin’ man’s Democrat” Mayor of Pittsburgh went to Harrisburg and raised holy hell when the State tried to enforce cab monopolies because his Millenial hipster voter base was screaming bloody murder.
Yup, these medallions are just like housing in big urban areas. Government policy artificially limits the supply and prices go through the roof. People adapt by going around the absurdity, leaving some unfortunates stuck with a rapidly depreciating asset.
The medallion system was unjust. It was designed to limit the number of competitors. It served no good purpose. It kept taxi prices high and interfered with the free market.
But the free market won, with Uber and Lyft. Blacksmiths were put out of business. So were bloodletters.
Cabbies in NYC was a monopoly supported by NYC gov’t. Nothing which supports artificially high prices is secure. Ask million of Union workers in Northern states whose jobs were moved to Southern states with right to work laws.
If and when the self-driving cars take over the roads, ALL cab drivers, and even the Lyft and Uber drivers will be out of business.
So, word to the wise: don’t become a cab driver or a Uber/Lyft driver.
If someone doesn’t know how to turn lemons into lemonade they shouldn’t be in business.. They should work for people who do know how.
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