I haven't seen many people defending the cab industry, which is clearly broken in many markets, including mine. I get that you hate cab companies. I do, too.
However, I'm just not sure that I like Uber any better. Most of the issues you describe with taxi drivers apply to Uber drivers as well.
As for your happiness metric, I'm not so sure about what you call facts. Asking your driver isn't going to provide useful data.
One type of dysfunctional business just got replaced with another.
The vast majority of Uber drivers are part time by choice. You don’t have that option with taxi driving. One driver I had would wake up early and drive people to the airport before work and that helped him pay off his car sooner. Uber is extremely flexible and the engagement model isn’t predatory. You make money from your first trip and everything is clearly spelled out. You can even work for Lyft and Uber at the same time.
Flexibility is the key for most drivers. Is every driver happy? No. Is every google software engineer happy? No. Some would accuse google of being predatory but just because some people say that doesn’t make it real. Go ask most of the drivers and you will see that it’s a part time job to them and for what it is it’s fine. They don’t look to it like some career and they shouldn’t.
However, I'm just not sure that I like Uber any better. Most of the issues you describe with taxi drivers apply to Uber drivers as well.
As for your happiness metric, I'm not so sure about what you call facts. Asking your driver isn't going to provide useful data.
One type of dysfunctional business just got replaced with another.