Far-left, Anti-Austerity Party Triumphs in Greek Election.

[pErvinalia]

Taxi unions save drivers' lives here. It sounds like your problem in the US isn't unions, it the selfishness your culture promotes.

[piscator]

I do have a job. A great one where I set my own hours and working conditions and determine how to satisfy my client's needs and where I'm free to negotiate with my other client about compensation.

No. Your car has a job. It'll start setting its own hours and demanding raises soon enough...

[Seth]

I do have a job. A great one where I set my own hours and working conditions and determine how to satisfy my client's needs and where I'm free to negotiate with my other client about compensation.

No. Your car has a job. It'll start setting its own hours and demanding raises soon enough...

Maybe. But everybody I talk to says the same thing I do: "I'll never set foot in a car that doesn't have a steering wheel, accelerator pedal and brake pedal." I'm not worried.

[Seth]

Taxi unions save drivers' lives here. It sounds like your problem in the US isn't unions, it the selfishness your culture promotes.

Taxi unions protect extremely bad drivers who often commit criminal acts against their riders.

Just yesterday I took a lady home and we were talking about taxis. She told me that recently she called the cab company and specifically told them that she had no cash and would pay with a credit card. They dispatched a taxi (which took 45 minutes to arrive) and she specifically told the driver she would be paying with a card. He said that was okay and she got in. About a mile from her home, in the middle of nowhere, he stopped the cab and demanded that she pay him in cash. She said she didn't have cash and reminded him she told him she was paying by card, but the driver insisted she pay cash or get out of the car on a darkened road far from her home. She said he drove her around to four different ATMs before finding one that would take her card and she was forced to withdraw cash and give it to him, at which point he left her standing at the ATM and drove away.

A number of crimes were committed by that driver including false imprisonment and kidnapping as well as extortion and numerous violations of the taxi code.

I told her she should have simply dialed 911 when he refused to deliver her to her destination. but she said she was very afraid for her safety from the driver, who she thought might attack her.

So fuck the cab companies and the taxi unions. They did it to themselves and I hope Uber puts them out of business.

[pErvinalia]

Taxi unions here got security cameras installed in cabs, which protects both the driver and the passengers. They also got security partitions installed in some troublesome cab areas around the country, which stops cabbies from being assaulted and killed. You're an idiot.

[piscator]

I do have a job. A great one where I set my own hours and working conditions and determine how to satisfy my client's needs and where I'm free to negotiate with my other client about compensation.

No. Your car has a job. It'll start setting its own hours and demanding raises soon enough...

Maybe. But everybody I talk to says the same thing I do: "I'll never set foot in a car that doesn't have a steering wheel, accelerator pedal and brake pedal." I'm not worried.

Soon enough, your car will take an unscheduled vacation in a repair facility. And then you will understand that not only is the car out of work, but it needs $5100 of that $$ you and Uber have been borrowing from it, or you're going to be driving a rickshaw... Now you have a job: to raise the repair $$ so you can run until the next repair.

Don't even bother trying to refi the car, you're already upside down on the note due to all those miles Uber has you running...But this repair-repair cycle gets shorter and shorter until the point Uber is no longer willing to pay you a premium for an old SUV.
And that's when you'll find out how much of the value you and Uber have driven off your vehicle, and realize you actually work for the auto finance company, the Mercedes tech, and the House of Saud, rather than yourself.

[JimC]

Getting back to the Greece situation, rather than the Seth/piscator feud (allies on guns and killing rag heads, enemies on economic issues...), I suspect that compromise will be the eventual name of the game, rather than the apocalyptic visions of those who delight in extremes...

[pErvinalia]

...the Seth/piscator feud (allies on guns and killing rag heads, enemies on economic issues...)...

[pErvinalia]

According to this article, the Austeritists (I makez a new term! ) won.

The rightwing orthodoxy that dominates thinking in Brussels has asserted itself over the hapless Greeks. A deal that allows the eurozone policymakers, the International Monetary Fund and the government of Athens to keep talking next week is the first stage in a clampdown on anti-austerity sentiment.

That much was clear from the statements coming out of Brussels, not least those from Wolfgang Schäuble, Germany’s veteran finance minister, who indulged himself with some patronising comments to show where the power lies. “Being in government is a date with reality, and reality is often not as nice as a dream,” was the quip he delivered with a smile, one that is usually omitted from diplomacy school.

Greece has many enemies inside the eurozone. The countries that have suffered Brussels-inspired austerity – Portugal and Ireland – and those that have played a role in enforcing it – the Germans, Dutch and Finns – all want the radical leftwing Syriza-led government in Athens to stick with the programme. France and Italy might have been courted by the Greeks and proved reliable allies, but they stand meekly on the sidelines offering warm words and little else.

For the right-of-centre parties that control Portugal, Ireland and probably more importantly Spain, which is also under serious threat from an anti-austerity party, the need to keep Greece in check is driven by domestic politics. Any sense that austerity was ever wrong or that it delayed the recovery, as Greek finance minister Yanis Varoufakis argues, would undermine their authority and hand the intellectual higher ground to rival parties.

So Varoufakis’s first demand for a debt writedown was dismissed. Then his attempt to win a bridging loan, separate from the existing bailout deal, was trashed. Decisions to suspend privatisations were frowned on. Now he must use what money is available to shore up Greek banks.

Where have we heard before that the banks must come first? Varoufakis wants to boost demand by handing some cash to workers and pensioners in the form of a higher minimum wage and modestly larger pensions. It makes perfect sense to some economists, but they are not running the show.

http://www.theguardian.com/business/201 ... MP=soc_567

[Warren Dew]

Greece is learning - or relearning, rather - that beggars can't be choosers.

[JimC]

Beware Greeks bearing gifts...

[Seth]

Taxi unions here got security cameras installed in cabs, which protects both the driver and the passengers.

I got security cameras in my car and I didn't need a fucking union goon to put it in for me, I put it in myself because it's prudent to do so. If taxi drivers wanted security cameras, they fucking well could have gone and bought them themselves..

They also got security partitions installed in some troublesome cab areas around the country, which stops cabbies from being assaulted and killed. You're an idiot.

Lawsuits would have accomplished the same thing, cheaper, without having to chain employees to the corrupt influence of unions.

And if you don't like the risks of being a cabbie, then don't be a cabbie.

Not to mention the fact that cabbies are the ones who demand cash only, which makes them targets. Uber drivers aren't targets because they don't accept cash, it's all done by credit card that's been verified so that Uber and the driver know exactly who they are picking up, so if something happens, there's direct evidence available, which is why Uber drivers are very rarely robbed.

Cabbies could do that if they wanted to, but they don't because they like cash transactions that they can conceal from tax authorities, so they made their own bed, and now they can lie in it.

[pErvinalia]

Taxi unions here got security cameras installed in cabs, which protects both the driver and the passengers.

I got security cameras in my car and I didn't need a fucking union goon to put it in for me, I put it in myself because it's prudent to do so. If taxi drivers wanted security cameras, they fucking well could have gone and bought them themselves..

Sigh. Most drivers drive for other people. I.e. it isn't their car. They shouldn't be responsible for putting in security cameras unregulated (i.e. you need to consider passenger privacy rights) in someone else's car. As usual, you don't know what you are talking about.

They also got security partitions installed in some troublesome cab areas around the country, which stops cabbies from being assaulted and killed. You're an idiot.

Lawsuits would have accomplished the same thing, cheaper, without having to chain employees to the corrupt influence of unions.

How is a lawsuit going to do it? That doesn't regulate anyone to do anything. You need standards. Even you sometimes accept that standards are necessary.

And if you don't like the risks of being a cabbie, then don't be a cabbie.

Or be one and take advantage of the excellent work that unions do looking out for your rights and working conditions.

Not to mention the fact that cabbies are the ones who demand cash only, which makes them targets.

What the fuck are you talking about? This isn't the wild west (i.e. the US). ALL cabs have eftpos facilities in them here. Remember, we live in the civilised world, Seth.

Uber drivers aren't targets because they don't accept cash, it's all done by credit card that's been verified so that Uber and the driver know exactly who they are picking up, so if something happens, there's direct evidence available, which is why Uber drivers are very rarely robbed.

Good for you. But cabs are meeting a market (i.e. people who want the option to pay in cash). I thought you supported market mechanisms?

Cabbies could do that if they wanted to, but they don't because they like cash transactions that they can conceal from tax authorities, so they made their own bed, and now they can lie in it.

[/quote]

As usual, you have no idea what you are talking about.

[Seth]

I do have a job. A great one where I set my own hours and working conditions and determine how to satisfy my client's needs and where I'm free to negotiate with my other client about compensation.

No. Your car has a job. It'll start setting its own hours and demanding raises soon enough...

Maybe. But everybody I talk to says the same thing I do: "I'll never set foot in a car that doesn't have a steering wheel, accelerator pedal and brake pedal." I'm not worried.

Soon enough, your car will take an unscheduled vacation in a repair facility. And then you will understand that not only is the car out of work, but it needs $5100 of that $$ you and Uber have been borrowing from it, or you're going to be driving a rickshaw... Now you have a job: to raise the repair $$ so you can run until the next repair.

That's certainly a risk, but it's one I choose to take. When the repairs become too expensive, I trade the car in on a new one.

Don't even bother trying to refi the car, you're already upside down on the note due to all those miles Uber has you running.

Nope. it's currently worth just about twice what I owe on it, and it'll be paid off in November.

..But this repair-repair cycle gets shorter and shorter until the point Uber is no longer willing to pay you a premium for an old SUV.

Yup, gotta keep up with the Joneses.

And that's when you'll find out how much of the value you and Uber have driven off your vehicle, and realize you actually work for the auto finance company, the Mercedes tech, and the House of Saud, rather than yourself.

Well, it beats working for the US government. Besides, with my 796 FICO score, I can go out and buy a brand-new Benz GL-550 with all the fixings for only a hundred bucks more a month than I'm paying for this one. True, it's a six year note instead of a three year one, but that's okay with me. And if I buy another lease return with low miles that's Benz certified like this one was, I'll have a nice long warranty on it just as I did this one.

The car is a tool just like your Trimble GPS or whatever you use. Tools wear out and/or become obsolete, but in the meantime they provide the means by which I can pay my bills and make a profit.

[pErvinalia]

It's an expensive and rapidly depreciating tool, though.