Item — HN Reader

You've understood it! We Germans want this "market" to be illegal.

Just like erecting skyscrapers that cannot withstand a summer breeze or storing nuclear waste on a city landfill.

If Americans want to do it differently, be my guest. Yes, you're more focused on individual freedom than the rest of the world. Fine with me.

But maybe you could try to understand that Germans are very safety-oriented. And maybe you could just accept that instead of telling us that we're not doing things like America and therefore we're wrong.

1 comments

"You've understood it! We Germans want this "market" to be illegal."

Not all Germans, seeing as people are actually using Uber in Germany. That's the point I was trying to make. Tyranny of the majority, I suppose, unfortunate, but apparently "the best we got".

Side note: I'm not actually American. Please don't stereotype and make assumptions based on opinion/nationality, even if it is a good one such as "focused on individual freedom" and "Germans are very safety-oriented", etc.

Some germans also buy beef lasagna that's actually horse interlaced with yucky medications, because it's cheap. A lot of germans buy computers at media markt and at the same time complain that the nice guy fixing computers around the corner has to close. He was always so friendly and gave so much recommendations about which parts to buy, where to I go now to get proper advice. We buy bread at the supermarket and complain that it's not the same as back then, when we'd still eat hand-made bread where every loaf was different (I could always tell when the baker was out for a long party by the shape of the rolls).

People are very bad at judging what's in their best interest, especially since often their personal interest at the time when doing the transaction conflicts with they long-term best interest or the societies interest. And so, to some level, some things (like taxi companies) are regulated in germany. This is obviously an imperfect system, but I remain unconvinced that free market rules all is a better system.

There are certainly individuals who prefer Uber and who's interests align very well with Uber, but I'm uncertain that's a majority. That's certainly annoying to those individuals, but that's life in a society, we all have to give at some point. Germany. This is obviously an imperfect