Just google the accident an Uber driver had in San Francisco, killing a child. … Had no insurance.
What exactly is the insurance for? I can’t think of a reason why I would make a decision on a taxi based on the insurance carried.
… among those Germans who are happy and proud that after many terrible mistakes in the past at least during the last 69 years we were able to install and maintain a working “Sozialstaat” and “Rechtsstaat” (social and law-driven state or however this is called in English). Our laws are still made through democratic mechanisms and not (at least not directly) by profit-oriented multinational corporations…
It surely is a complicated topic. When I was reading “China Daily” a few years ago in Shanghai, one comment of the previous Chinese Prime Minister Wen Jiabao caught my attention, while he was visiting his counterpart in India. He said: “The last century was the century of the West. This is our century, the century of the Far East”.
Over 1 billion people have moved out of poverty in the Far East putting pressure on the West. That is the root cause of the shrinking middle class, that is seen throughout Europe and the US. It does require adjustments, usually towards a more market driven economy and does result in erosion of the social safety net. The social market economy, that worked extremely well in the last century, was somewhat of a luxury, while there were no external economic pressures. One can not just keep everything the same, while the Far East pressure is mounting.
What is the insurance for – suppose (god forbid) the taxi runs into a streetlight post and the passengers end up crippled. Will the insurance pay out? Not if it turns out it was carrying out a commercial operation which requires a different insurance . Which is entirely appropriate – a taxi driver spends more time on the road and so is more likely to be involved in an accident than the average joe schmoe driver.
the Far East putting pressure on the West. That is the root cause of the shrinking middle class, that is seen throughout Europe and the US.
Hmm, what I see is increased demand for our products and millions of new buyers appearing on the market. Wouldn’t call that “pressure”.
The social market economy, that worked extremely well in the last century, was somewhat of a luxury, while there were no external economic pressures.
That really started with globalization which is now 20 years old or more. Among the countries that did best are the most socialist economies like Scandinavia and Germany and the super expensive Switzerland. So I don’t think your point is valid. The countries that lost relatively speaking did so due to bad leadership and policies.
Nearly all social science forecasts turn out to be wrong because mankind has an awkward habit of walking all the way to the edge of the cliff and then heads get banged together and mankind takes drastic measures to back away from the edge. That’s why extrapolation almost never seems to work – except in the short term.
In fact I would say that nearly all social science research is bogus – because except in the most trivial cases there is no known way to compensate for all the various factors. Which doesn’t stop an awful lot of people getting funding for it and getting PhDs (case study PhDs, invariably, with a theoretical framework painfully contrived and twisted to fit the data) on the back of it 
If my healthcare was dependent on insurance carried by a taxi driver, you can bet I’d be buying different healthcare pronto.
The best form of social science research is to watch what people actually do based on their own needs, and it takes zero funding. However, the government/university complex never rests in its drive for self perpetuation.
Achima – 100% agreed on Creative Destruction.
Insurance is expensive, until you need it.
Did you know in the Philippines the driving license replaces the national id card and there is no driving exam to get it?
Remember to knock the roof three times with a dollar coin next time you want your Tagalog-speaking driver to stop…
demand for our products and millions of new buyers appearing on the market
It’s not that one sided. Stuff is also sold at super cheap prices manufactured at super cheap labor cost. 25 years ago, the West was insulated, competing only among itself at a high level. High labor costs did not matter much. Now world wide labor costs do matter.
Among the countries that did best are the most socialist economies like Scandinavia and Germany and the super expensive Switzerland
Norway is oil rich, so does not count. Sweden and Finland are just doing OK. Switzerland is a small country, somewhat of an “odd bird”. Many economists argue, that Germany benefited from the introduction of the Euro on the back of its neighbors allowing it to run large trade surpluses. The “beggaring its neighbors” argument. I admit, I do not fully buy that. However, Germany did implement far reaching labor reforms, while its more socialist neighbors, France, Spain, Italy did not.
increased demand for our products
Any source for that? Round here, I see production facilities closing down at an alarming rate, and precious few new ones starting up. Even if there are startups, they are in niche markets like G/A cfr. D-Motor, ULPower, … that will never provide the volume of labour we lost in GM, Ford &c.
The only demand that probably remains is demand for our knowledge / know-how, but I see little government support for that so it is not going to last for more than one generation, perhaps less, perhaps a bit more.
