I hope I'm not sounding too milton friedman-y here, but even if Uber's business model is dependent on circumventing labor laws to depress wages, in the case it goes under it won't be Uber drivers to benefit the most from it, but medallion owning companies and cab drivers.
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There aren't medallions in the UK; the supply of taxi/private hire drivers is slightly restricted by licensing requirements (which are pretty loose for private hire drivers in particular) but otherwise it's already an open market.
This isn't market competition, it's an attempt at regulatory circumvention - getting tight control over your drivers while claiming them to be autonomous and self-employed to avoid minimum wages and the payment of National Insurance contributions and sick pay - which seems to have failed.
The UK doesn't have a medallion system
Yes we do, they're the plates that are required to be displayed on both Black Cabs and Private Hire.
In some areas they're quite valuable and sell for £30k+ (without the car to attach it to).
Private hire licencing is the responsibility of local authorities and probably varies. In many places, they're easy to get, though; Transport for London seem to have no limit on numbers and a fee of £100 a year - https://tfl.gov.uk/info-for/taxis-and-private-hire/licensing...
Oh I know, but some areas still restrict licenses and it can lead to the ridiculous costs. Not sure how wide restrictions are, just that they're much less common than they used to be!
I did not know that but i was thinking of the London black cabs which don't
We have black cabs which is just as bad.
I think uber going under would lead to a bunch of other competitors entering the market and (hopefully) following the law a little better.
How about we import enough H1B workers to replace you and collapse wages, see how long youll think like that