It's occassionally cheaper to provide poor with a huge Uber voucher than with rent subsidy. Two rides a day, 20 days a month is still just $800 (perhaps cheaper in rural area, bought in bulk).

And by doing that you're making economy healthier. By propping up big cities you're contributing to feet of clay situation.

So, it's good for the government to give money to a service operating at artificially lowered prices and whose business model has been to flout laws as far as they can get away with it?

If the company name triggers you, just pretend it's a bus or a train voucher.

You can have competition between providers for those vouchers.

That would make it even worse, a race to the bottom.

WHAT? Since when free money from government in already economically depressed area will "make it even worse"?

Worse compared to that? Channeling more money to landlords in SF and NY?

It's basically people on early disability choosing between whisky on payday and making extra buck on hauling other people like them around.

Face it, many less-fortunate areas are on the bottom already even in developed nations.

"It's occassionally cheaper to provide poor with a huge Uber voucher than with rent subsidy."

Failing that, let them eat cake.

Uber, taxi service, and most forms of public transportation do not exist at all in rural areas.

Why won't Uber exist in rural areas? And by "rural" I actually mean most of places which aren't a booming megapolis, including cities of ~100,000.

You have a strange definition of rural.

Anyway, out here in the middle of nowhere, Uber, taxi and (high frequency) bus service are not economically viable. Low population means low numbers of fares means low suppliers means long delays for service means lower numbers of fares. All of which is made worse by distances.

Medium and large cities do have taxi service and public transport, but those are lower priority since everyone has a car.

I don't see how Uber would not be unviable anywhere. As a driver, even if you have one rider per month, why not make an extra $10?

WRT "made worse by distances" Bay Area is actually pretty sprawling itself. I don't think any rural community will have its points of interests further apart than Bay Area has.

Uber doesn't offer service in much of the rural US now. There's a ride service specifically for rural areas called Liberty: http://libertymobilitynow.com/

But even these are for micropolitan areas with populations on the order of 40,000. There is still no service for more remote areas.

Let's say you're on Hartz IV. The $10 have to be accounted for at the social security system, and if you earn to many of them $10's, you don't get to keep them.