Uber Can’t Be Fixed – It’s Time for Regulators to Shut It Down
There are some points in here that I broadly agree with:<p>&gt; Uber’s business model is predicated on lawbreaking. And having grown through intentional illegality, Uber can’t easily pivot toward following the rules.<p>&gt;  Uber’s most distinctive capabilities focused on defending its illegality. Uber built up staff, procedures, and software systems whose purpose was to enable and mobilize passengers and drivers to lobby regulators and legislators — creating political disaster for anyone who questioned Uber’s approach.<p>&gt; Having built a corporate culture that celebrates breaking the law, it is surely no accident that Uber then faced scandal after scandal. How is an Uber manager to know which laws should be followed and which ignored?<p>Even this:<p>&gt; If we allow an illegal business model to flourish in one sector, soon businesses in that sector and others will see that the shrewd strategy is to ignore the law, seek forgiveness rather than permission, and hope for the best.<p>That seems reasonable. But the author wants to draw a pretty different conclusion than I would -- his point is that it&#x27;s necessary to stomp hard on this kind of behavior, because if people notice that breaking the law benefits everyone, they will lose respect for the law.<p>I don&#x27;t see that as a &quot;problem&quot; we should be attempting to solve. Where breaking the law benefits everyone, we <i>should</i> lose respect for the law. I would say the law should stop staking out such ludicrous positions and then trying to defend them based purely on the idea that if it loses a single battle, chaos will reign everywhere.<p>Just yesterday I read a court judgment of a guy convicted of drug trafficking. He was caught after police pulled him over for driving 79 mph in a 75 zone. To me, that&#x27;s not a victory for the cause of &quot;respect for the law&quot;.