Much of this discussion seems to be based on what others -- society, the City, passengers, other cab drivers, lawyers, doctors and tribal Chiefs -- deem an appropriate "value" level for our services.

What is our presumed, estimated, theoretical "value" worth to any of them?

From a vantage of worker/labor history, a cab driver, like any other "machine operator" is a necessary evil, an expense, a mere extension of piece of capital equipment (the machine a cabbie operates).

Ideally a cab driver or any person who engages in manual labor is the highest form of practical energy: self-directed, no buttons, switches or software required.

That is the number one reason why passengers request receipts for the end of trip, it is a tax-deductible expense.

To the governing authorities a cab driver and the taxi he/she operates is a valuable source of revenue.

As things stand now with respect to a cab driver's relationship to the general public, a cab driver is necessary, globe-warming evil; to the City, a cab driver is source of cash, to the taxi owners from whom a cab driver leases, a paying steady customer.

That's the down-and-dirty, bare essential truth.

Maybe cab drivers need to stop asking others what they are worth, what their value is, what they should get paid.

But to do that you need to consider that those who have already asked that question have come to the cold, hard reality, the inescapable fact that there have to be very basic, systemic changes in the relationships between drivers, owners, and the City.

The bad news: There are powerful forces at work, directly and through proxy that have and will continue to maintain the current status quo of the relationships that now exist - the power elite, someone called them.

The infant "movement" to identify this situation, to address the problems and offer appropriate changes inherent in this system, has been soundly quashed at practically every turn by the very people who would be the beneficiaries of such changes.

الذئب

Subject: Bill Gates speech

Love him or hate him, he sure hits the nail on the head with this! To anyone
with kids of any age, here's some advice.

Bill Gates recently gave a speech at a High School about 11 things they did not and will not learn in school. He talks about how feel-good, politically
correct teachings created a generation of kids with no concept of reality and how this concept set them up for failure in the real world.

> Rule 1 : Life is not fair - get used to it!

> Rule 2: The world won't care about your self-esteem. The world will expect you to accomplish something BEFORE you feel good about yourself.

> Rule 3 : You will NOT make $60,000 a year right out of high school. You won't be a vice-president with a car phone until you earn both.

> Rule 4 : If you think your teacher is tough, wait till you get a boss.

> Rule 5 : Flipping burgers is not beneath your dignity. Your Grandparents had a different word for burger flipping: they called it opportunity.

> Rule 6 : If you mess up, it's not your parents' fault, so don't whine about your mistakes, learn from them.

> Rule 7: Before you were born, your parents weren't as boring as they are now. They got that way from paying your bills, cleaning your clothes and listening to you talk about how cool you thought you were. So before you save the rain forest from the parasites of your parent's generation, try delousing the closet in your own room.

> Rule 8 : Your school may have done away with winners and losers, but life HAS NOT. In some schools, they have abolished failing grades and they'll give you as MANY TIMES as you want to get the right answer. This doesn't bear the slightest
resemblance to ANYTHING in real life.

> Rule 9 : Life is not divided into semesters. You don't get summers off and very few employers are interested in helping you FIND YOURSELF. Do that on your own time.

> Rule 10: Tel evision is NOT real life. In real life people actually have to leave the coffee shop and go to jobs.

> Rule 11 : Be nice to nerds. Chances are you'll end up working for one.

If you agree, pass it on.
If you can read this - Thank a teacher!
If you are reading it in English -Thank a soldier!

amen, I think.

as cab driver for mor than tweny years I tell you every cab driver know that making money is not the issue here and the gas prices will not effect the income that much. The issue here should be the unexplainable increase the price of the medallion and the monopoly and who is behind it. The city should work to find common intrest between preserving cab drivers dignity by allowing them to hold on their dream of owning their own medallion. Also trimming the influance of special group whose trying to control cab drivers destiny.

Here's a posting that's right on the money --- gas prices do make some difference in a cab driver's day-to-day income, but the outrageous and ever rising price tag on medallions held by monopolists, many of whom aren't even living in the Midwest is much more distressing long term.

The real squeeze isn't just going to come from the oil barons around the planet, and the focus of the concerned in our community needs to be on controling this commodity first and foremost.


Donald Nathan

The City resolutely ignores any talk of re-instituting the so-called "senior driver" medallion lottery.

It's Rule 18 or 19, which used to authorize the medallion lottery, but now authorizes the "auction," which should be outlawed, if it isn't, in light of state law and case law providing for "licensing" at cost to the licensing agency.

But in these economic conditions and times, as well “home rule” laws in the current Illinois State Constitution, which The Honorable Richard Daily helped write, to the City it means "act like the mob, take what you can get by hook or by crook."

Thus by manipulating medallion "auction" prices (setting fake prices), “auctioning or more accurately-“selling” instead of ISSUING the licenses, the City scores huge bucks and the "buyers" score more power and more cash generators (cab drivers behind the wheels of their cabs).

The current scheme of things: Push the price high enough to get single-medallion holders to sell out, which then can be gobbled up by front-men for the big fleets and "outsider" fleet operators, with unknown and undisclosed financial backing, from who-knows-where, even Russian and Kuwaiti "banking interests" might be involved.

It is not a new story: Little guy gets squeezed out, big guys take over, with the help of the government.

The idea of "trimming influence" really means making the lawful authorities RESPONSIBLE and ACCOUNTABLE for their decisions and actions.

But then you have to institute laws that govern the government and reduce or diminish or mitigate their current level of power and influence.

I would venture to speculate that the last thing our City government wants on its individual and collective back is more laws that protect the public from the government, in this case, cab drivers and medallion holders.

After readig your artical agree one hundred pecent but the government has the laws it needid, but it needs the will to infors it .
examble: one company it keeps over hundred cabs in it"garage to keep demand high in the street for cabs so they justify thir increases the weekly leass.
the city shuld make sure every cab fits to be on the street, be on the street at rush hour time.