ONCE UPON A TAXI
Uber a plus for folks passed by
Dear John: You recently wrote an interesting piece on the taxi industry.
On one hand, I feel bad for people in the industry because the value of taxi medallions has taken a real hit since the advent of Uber. That was an investment for a lot of immigrants who came here.
On the other hand, as a black man who has lived in this city for five decades, do you know how many times I have successfully hailed a cab? Once.
Only one time a guy was willing to pick me up. As far as their complaints about the consequences [of not picking certain people up], since I never was in the cab, I never saw their hack license to know their name or information.
You could try to write down a license plate from a car speeding away, but I never bothered to try.
With Uber, I can get picked up and through the app on my phone I can be identified and tracked down so drivers aren’t worried that I am going to do something to them. B.R.
Dear B.R.: Wow, once! And I assume you know how to hail a cab. Stand dangerously in the street, wave your hand frantically and hope you don’t get hit as a cabbie swerves four lanes toward you. Well, of course you do.
Dear John: When you wrote your column about President Trump’s overseas corporate tax plan, you did not mention one important thing: inflation.
When the $2.6 trillion cash stash of corporate profits floods the country’s economy, it will cause serious inflation. It will be the equivalent of helicopter money.
Is the US prepared for another wave of inflation? It better be. M.H.
Dear M.H.: Even if you are correct, would you really rather have a weak economy than a little more inflation?
The Federal Reserve has been trying for years to get inflation to a more normal level.
Besides, these repatriated corporate profits would be coming back to the US when the Fed is normalizing its balance sheet — which could slow the economy and reduce inflation.
You know where I stand. Allow corporations to repatriate the profits at a favorable tax rate in exchange for using a portion of the profits to expand their businesses and create jobs.
Dear John: I enjoyed your article regarding the US debt.
You mentioned bitcoin, which I also believe is a con game. You stated that “bitcoin and its imitators are backed by nothing of any real value.”
To my way of seeing things, the same thing is true about the US dollar. B.M.
Dear B.M.: Any currency is a confidence game. You trust that the government of that country will be able to pay off its obligations. And you, especially, trust that the government will still be in power to pay off its obligations.
That’s why no currency in Africa is considered stable. The leaders change too often.
True, the US dollar is no longer backed by gold or anything being held in a government vault.
But the US government has lots of assets that it could, technically, sell in a pinch. It has parks, natural resources, planes, cars, etc.
It’s still a confidence game, as any currency is. If you are not confident that a country will pay up, you aren’t going to invest in its currency.