The polity (culture) that is France

As most of you probably know, there is a legal campaign against Uber going on in France, here is part of the back story:

It took only a few years for Uber and other platforms challenging the Parisian taxis’ monopoly to create more than 15,000 jobs. (About 5,300 are self-employed and the rest are employed by minicab companies.) They compete against the 17,000 taxis in Paris.

“There has been a tidal wave of start-ups in the banlieues, an entire generation wants to be Uber drivers,” says Sabrina Lauro at Planet Adam, a non-profit organisation that helps residents in the suburbs set up businesses. Uber appeals to those without a diploma or work experience, she said.

Research seems to bear this out. Charles Boissel, a PhD student at HEC Paris, a business school, found that most minicab registrations were in the “suburbs of northern and south-eastern Paris, where economic conditions are harshest”.

Here is the Anne-Sylvaine Chassany FT piece, recommended.