Originally Posted by Jel

This. I can only go on the UK, but it's fucking amazing to me how people aren't seeing this. It's like seeing all the content producers, paysites, and so on moaning about torrents and tubes, where the overheads are cut drastically by not having to actually buy any content, and 1 billion surfers replying "fuck your monopoly, the market will decide".

Baffling.

My friend is a minicab driver - his car cannot be over 5 years old (may be 3, I can't recall offhand), he pays exorbitant insurance, had to pay $x,xxx to apply and receive his licence after criminal background checks, medicals, and so on. The gov't set the rates that the company he rents his radio equipment from charge passengers.

I have another few friends that are London black cab drivers, which is even stricter as far as passing exams for street knowledge, are tied in to rates set by the gov't to charge passengers.

All people see is 'cheaper!' and are way too quick to dismiss legit gripes by the drivers adhering to the govt's fees, laws, CRB checks, and so on. Y'know, kinda like surfers shouting 'the vids here are FREE though! If they can do it why can't all porn sites?'