Reasons not to use Uber
Might just be a bit too exaggerated, especially about the comparison with taxi. I don't think Uber is great but let's be honest, the taxi system is not great in a lot of places either and taxi drivers in a lot of cases are treated even much worse. In China the simple fact is Uber-like companies have allowed people to earn so much more than under monopolized taxi companies, such that huge swarms of taxi drivers just simply quit their jobs already. Most drivers I talked to are very happy with their income and flexible working hours (with many part-timing), so I'm not sure where the "15-hour-per-day" work applies to. Certainly not what I could see.<p>Of course, this could also be a result of the short-term boom of this industry, where big players are just investing tons of money. The long-term impact remains to be seen. I predict a lot of drivers will be out of job by then since there're way too many of them currently. But to say "we must preserve this job done by human beings because we don't have universal income yet" is sheer nonsense. I can't believe somebody so proficient with technology could say that. I'm all in for universal income, but for each technological advancement there're bound to be old jobs washed out. Artificially holding them does absolutely no good to progress and people's well-being. Honestly if that's what's been happening throughout the history there would be no computer boom, no RMS at all and he'll certainly be doing something else.<p>Also, Uber technically doesn't even exist any more in China (sold to its competitor in the form of its shares). Anyways, it's imaginable that some local government tries to contact such companies for data and certain crowd control, but it was unlikely to be something centralized. I really hate the "repressive China" stereotype being emphasized again and again. Remember even the US federal government bought tons of data from FB/Twitter/Instagram etc. to control protesters, so I don't see any difference here.