Uber

Earlier tonight I booked an Uber to bring me home from the airport and waited patiently for about  20 mins before realizing that the driver had no intention of picking me up or cancelling the trip. Cancelling trips lead to penalties for drivers, I suppose. But, this man ignored my phone calls and I could see that he was hanging around the airport, which lead me to believe that he was waiting for me to cancel out of frustration so that he could pick up someone else. Incensed, I decided to get even so I decided to take a regular taxi without cancelling the ride and setting him free to pick up someone else. 

I was try not to make this another post about class/caste antagonism but it is difficult to skirt the issue. The Uber fare was half of the regular fare for a non-airconditioned taxi. It is difficult to imagine anyone making money from that fare, and even if there was I'm guessing it wasn't the driver. Yes, it was rotten behaviour to ignore my calls and leave me hanging but he probably wanted to avoid a earful of abuse. I realize focusing on structures and absolving human agency is a cop-out. We are more than automatons dancing to the tunes of our structures. But, in such a situation, it  is difficult not to. Exploitative relationships (Uber-Uber drivers, Uber users-Uber drivers) have multiple ramifications.