Another Taxi Driver in Debt Takes His Life. That’s 5 in 5 Months

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/05/27/nyregion/taxi-driver-suicide-nyc.html

by Element_ • 8 years ago

38 16 8 years ago

himom• 8 years ago

Overall inequality issues include taxi drivers, gig economy, etc.. but many of those types of jobs will mostly disappear due to automation. UBI maybe unavoidable as there won’t be enough un/low-skilled work to go around and people have to eat.

As an anecdote, I attended a bankruptcy proceeding at a federal court in Redding where one woman had a cancer medication pump tube going in her nose. She lost all of her savings and almost everything else due to insurance not covering expenses.. and she’s Stage IV. Imagine involuntarily dying painfully and going broke simultaneously. This is worse than suicide because while otherwise healthy it’s a choice, cancer rarely is.

The contributing factors are:

0. The very, very rich have corrupted government to work primarily in their interests.

1. Technology has increased productivity and eliminated need for as much human effort.

1.5. Oversupply of labor leads to low pay.

2. People remaining in work have lost real wage gains correlatively with the decline in organized labor and rise in desperate workers both domestic and migrants, and as such, employers do nearly whatever they want to employees.

3. Outsourcing and closure of domestic production (globalization).

It will take another Roosevelt to save capitalism with some stabilizing half-measures, or the path is marching towards decline and likely rapidly-precipitating, populist communism like Venezuela. A third option that would work, but will not be considered without some violent and nonviolent force of the people: strong, appropriate regulation, removal of wealth welfare for the rich, fixing the tax code to eliminate loopholes for the rich, non-capitalist-influenced leadership and comprehensive investment in health, wellbeing, social services, UBI and helping workers out of intolerable life situations.

bigmit37• 8 years ago

Jesus ,that cancer story is depressing and occurs a lot more than we hear about. America is so backward with regards to health-care.

romwell• 8 years ago

This is worse than suicide because while otherwise healthy it’s a choice,

Not to argue with anything else you are saying, just this line:

This is a myth. Suicides are very rarely "otherwise healthy", but are the outcome of a mental illness, such as depression. By the same line, they are not a choice - usually they are the outcome and a symptom of a generally treatable condition.

Suicides, self-harm, attempts or ideation/fantasizing about them are not healthy, and usually aren't a choice, no more than a runny nose is a choice.

If you or someone you know exhibits these symptoms, get help.

DoreenMichele• 8 years ago

I think it is a lot more complicated than that.

I have an incurable medical condition. I am frequently incredibly miserable. I am frequently suicidal, in part because it is literally the only means to really escape the misery my body inflicts upon me.

I am pro right to die. There are circumstances under which it is cruel to act like wanting to end this situation the only way it can be ended is somehow crazy.

I am still here. I am doing all I can to pursue non-drug alternatives, for which the entire world gives me shit. That also fuels my suicidal ideation because it is such a no win, fuck you situation on so many levels.

But I wish people would not simplify this for some feel good PSA and act like wanting to die is simply evidence you are crazy. It is just not quite that cut and dried.

akoncius• 8 years ago

on the same topic, another thing what needs to be changed is metrics how “success” of a country as a whole is measured.

currently it’s mostly employment rate. low unemployment=good economy, country in good shape. problem with that is it does not represent quality of those employments, if majority is with super low compensation, then this “employment rate” metric is useless. what could be helpful is to define realistic “poverty line” and calculate statistics what is percentage of population above it. then we would see real situation of people’s lives and then it would be easier to discuss whether pleople need UBI (or other safety net) or not.

right now it’s even difficult to start discussion about it because part of population even disagrees that there are many people who need help.

Sohcahtoa822• 8 years ago

Who's idea was the medallion system, the city, the drivers, or both? Were taxi drivers in favor of the system when it first came out? Were they still in favor of it in the mid 2000's before Uber/Lyft?

If the answers to the last two questions are "yes", then I can't help but not have any sympathy for the plight of drivers and the expense of the medallions, especially when I read about taxi customers complaining about rude drivers, credit card machines "not working", having to wait over an hour for a taxi, etc.

The writing is on the wall. It's been on the wall for a couple years now. Taxis as we know it are a dying industry, being replaced by Uber/Lyft/etc.

And good riddance.

jsiepkes• 8 years ago

Even if the cabbies as a group wanted the medallion system at some point in time the guy who took his own life probably didn't create it. He was just "playing the game as it had been created". Then all of a sudden when he is pretty much all in, some VC decides to change the rules of the game. If someone comes along to "disrupt" the market (which just happens to be your life) and is willing to burn billions and billions of dollars on it (Uber has yet to make a dime of profit) I can imagine one would become desperate....

smileysteve• 8 years ago

some VC decides to change the rules of the game

The regulation part of the medallion system was to limit cabs cruising the streets looking for pickups. Shuttles, Black cars, and personal drivers were already able to pre-arrange pickups at a specific location`.

Do I think ride sharing blurs this line when cars don't pull on side streets for pick up? sure.

`depending on code

derangedHorse• 8 years ago

Uber HAS recently turned profit.

hunter23• 8 years ago

Taxi drivers have never been a fan of the medallion system. That system was cooked up by city regulators and medallion owners not drivers. Specifically, cities created a medallion system which limited the supply of drivers, thereby protecting cab rates and ensuring medallion owners get rich. This led to companies that hoard medallions and charge exorbitant leasing fees to taxi drivers, making them inclined to drive unsafely and not take credit cards because they were always in debt the day they started work. Essentially the system was a racket between medallion owners and the city that short changes citizens AND drivers.

https://www.heritage.org/transportation/report/taxicab-medal...

thirduncle2• 8 years ago

And good riddance.

An incredibly callous attitude to take at what must have been a truly profound sense of anguish and despair experienced by a person known to others as their "beloved father, husband, brother, friend." (Yes, I know you're saying that mostly about the medallion system. But to the extent that that's all that comes to mind when you hear about what happened -- yes, you pretty much are saying that the driver who took his life in this case, as well).

thirduncle2• 8 years ago

"... that about the driver ..."

Sohcahtoa822• 8 years ago

I suppose you're right. That does come off as a bit callous. Maybe I should rephrase my stance.

I'm glad the taxi industry as we know it is dying. However, it is a bit tragic that it is ruining the livelihood of taxi drivers on its way out so badly that they're committing suicide.

But is this any different than any other industry being replaced? Certainly we have sympathy for coal miners that have lost their jobs as our chosen sources of energy shift, but should that make us appreciate the shift away from coal and its destruction of our air any less?

Overtonwindow• 8 years ago

The taxi industry created Uber and Lyft by charging random fees, running up the meter, and creating this ecosystem where the passenger is basically taken for a ride with not much recourse. Ridesharing apps give something taxis never were able to: Actionable, immediate oversight. It’s terrible that all of these drivers are getting saddled with enormous debt over the medallions, but at some point it was bound to happen. You can’t run a corrupt monopoly forever.

DrScump• 8 years ago

  And good riddance.

Yeah, who cares about the disabled, those who live in "scary" neighborhoods, or others that taxis are mandated by law to take while ride share drivers decline?

Another Taxi Driver in Debt Takes His Life. That’s 5 in 5 Months

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