The Creation of Ride-sharing and the Creativity of Markets

How can we apply the lessons from Uber below in the electricity sector? We call it Consumer Regulated Electricity (CRE) - changing states’ policy to allow for the creation of new, independent and unregulated electric utilities.

“If someone in the private sector like Kalanick and Camp [founders of Uber] had not started a ride-sharing company, would it have happened? After all, there was no technological barrier that prevented existing taxicab companies from offering a similar phone app. But in many cities, entry into taxicab markets back in the early 2000s was restricted, usually based on claims about safety and quality of service, but in practice also helping to hold down supply and increase incomes of existing cab drivers.

There seems to me a vanishingly small chance that the existing taxicab companies in the early 21st century would have disrupted their existing business model by expanding the number of drivers more than 10-fold, or offering the advance guarantee of routes and fares that is common to ride-sharing. The chances are even smaller (if “even smaller” is possible), that some government transit agency would have pioneered this decentralized approach.”

https://conversableeconomist.com/2024/08/08/the-creation-of-ride-sharing-and-the-creativity-of-markets/