On: Taxing Uber and Lyft rides is L.A's latest plan to...

[mikeash]

There are much better ways to help the poor than by subsidizing trucking.

[JustSomeNobody → mikeash]

My point is you can't just look at something and not take into account where else it may impact.

Also, we need to get much better at helping the poor.

[mikeash → JustSomeNobody]

My point is that “it will hurt the poor” is a very old and very tired response to proposals that externalities should be accounted for in the cost of goods.

Part of getting better at helping the poor is helping them directly rather than using extremely inefficient and indirect subsidies on various industries to do so.