Originally Posted by
badger1
You see? This is the problem. You, like me, are (apparently) just another member of the Brigade of "the anti-LCF that like to throw their weight (and spit) around wherever ideas for car-free innovations dare to rear their heads."
Sad -- not. Why these latter-day variations on Ponzi schemes (for that is what they are) like Bird, Lime, and their ilk (not to mention Uber, Lyft etc.) are not recognized for what they are is beyond me.
One of the things I learned a long time ago is a con works best on those who want to get something for nothing. Or at the very least for close to nothing. So the promise has to be big even if a hard look tells someone it is too good to be true. A Ponzi can even be legal. Look at Amway, they promise you will make money simply by buying superior products. Quite often the first several layers of the Pyramid do make money. Sooner or later the people on the bottom are doing all the work and not making any money.
A promise of a system where you can pick up a scooter or bike “anywhere” you see it parked and drop it off “anywhere” you want for just a few bucks, less than 5 bucks a day sounds too good to be true. When you add 5 bucks to recover and charge one, bird hunting? LOL. Then when teen age kids are driving around town in a van, not car free and not easy on gas, your profits have to be taking a hit. Give the kids a bonus of 20-30 bucks each for scooters that have not been used for a day or two and how is the vendor making money?
The venture capitslist aren’t taking the hit try are using investors money. In city after city the systems are breaking down and the tax payers are cleaning up the mess but the believers are blaiming others for not supporting them. And when the Pyramid starts to crumble because the vans running around town are costing more than the scooters make some LCF true believers will wonder why no one said anything.
Just a prediction but the shared link might support such a prediction?