> It creates supply! (It doesn't. It stratifies the haves from the have-nots efficiently.)
Are you disputing that surge pricing increases supply? It should be trivially obvious that it does.
Your "moral" arguments only apply if you treat Uber as the sole provider of transportation. If Uber ever starts actually supplanting cabs, your argument will have some merit, but cab companies have not died off. They have a real competitor now, which I think is a good thing, and in markets like SF where the cab companies woefully underserved the population it's now actually possible to reasonably get a ride. But the cabs still exist, with the same regulations as before.
If Uber disappeared overnight, the supply of cabs would not increase. The supply of overall transportation during a storm certainly would not increase. Given that Uber is an addition to the existing transportation infrastructure, and not a replacement, what exactly is the justification for claiming that Uber needs to abide by the same pricing regulation that regular cab companies obey? There's a good argument for why safety regulations should apply to Uber, but that doesn't apply to things like pricing. Regulation of pricing for cab companies is not a natural consequence of the fact that the cab companies are in the business of transportation; it's a consequence of the fact that cab companies are seen as providing basic public infrastructure. Do you view Uber as basic public infrastructure? I don't, and I don't see how you can make a compelling argument for that position.
Are you disputing that surge pricing increases supply? It should be trivially obvious that it does.
Your "moral" arguments only apply if you treat Uber as the sole provider of transportation. If Uber ever starts actually supplanting cabs, your argument will have some merit, but cab companies have not died off. They have a real competitor now, which I think is a good thing, and in markets like SF where the cab companies woefully underserved the population it's now actually possible to reasonably get a ride. But the cabs still exist, with the same regulations as before.
If Uber disappeared overnight, the supply of cabs would not increase. The supply of overall transportation during a storm certainly would not increase. Given that Uber is an addition to the existing transportation infrastructure, and not a replacement, what exactly is the justification for claiming that Uber needs to abide by the same pricing regulation that regular cab companies obey? There's a good argument for why safety regulations should apply to Uber, but that doesn't apply to things like pricing. Regulation of pricing for cab companies is not a natural consequence of the fact that the cab companies are in the business of transportation; it's a consequence of the fact that cab companies are seen as providing basic public infrastructure. Do you view Uber as basic public infrastructure? I don't, and I don't see how you can make a compelling argument for that position.