Uber was, is, and always will be a bezzle. There are intrinsic limitations to the profits in operating a taxi fleet, even if you misclassify your employees as contractors and steal their wages, even as you force them to bear the cost of buying and maintaining your taxis.

The magic of early Uber - when taxi rides were incredibly cheap, and there were always cars available, and drivers made generous livings behind the wheel - wasn't magic at all. It was just #PredatoryPricing.

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They said it couldn't happen. After decades of #antitrust enforcement against #PredatoryPricing - selling goods below cost to kill existing competitors and prevent new ones from arising - the #ChicagoSchool of neoliberal #economists "proved" that predatory pricing didn't exist and that the courts could stand down and stop busting companies for it.

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Uber is a pure enshittification play. For more than a decade, the company lost more than 40 cents on every dollar, using #PredatoryPricing to destroy the yellow cab business and public transit. Now it employs ex-cab drivers at half their old wages to drive passengers at twice the old fares. It incinerated the forest and took root in the ashes.

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@KimPerales

So we are taught that #PredatoryPricing never happens, because it'd be irrational to incur losses by undercutting the competition to drive them out of business so you can have the whole market to yourself and jack up prices later. According to the Chicago school, this just doesn't happen. Too bad we see it happening all around us. So #consumerprices are set extortionistically, the spiral of #wealthconcentration accelerates, & #wealthinequality soars.

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