\n\n“Those who desperately need rides can pay extra for them. Those with spare time can take a bus, walk, call a friend, etc., or just wait for prices to drop.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Higher prices also mean higher pay for drivers, which encourages part-time drivers to drop what they are doing and start offering rides.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n
…<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“Uber and Lyft are great innovations. They forced taxi monopolies to treat customers better and let ordinary people use their cars to drive for money.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
But businesses get clobbered in the media whenever there’s an aberration. On that day, social media exploded with comments like, “Fare surge after a mass shooting\u2026.Shame on you @Uber.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The companies quickly went into damage control mode. “Our hearts go out to the victims,” tweeted Uber Support. “We disabled surge pricing in the area.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Disabling surge pricing may be good PR, but it’s a terrible practice. At the beginning of the pandemic, when toilet paper and hand sanitizer were scarce, politicians told people, “Report merchants who raise prices!” They called that “illegal price gouging.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n
But “gouging” was a good thing even then. It disincentivized hoarding and got suppliers to make more of the products we need most.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n