Excuse me, but during his 14 years in the USA getting to the point where he would be approved for that bank loan, were Mr. Beniste's "two kids" with him in NYC, or back in Haiti? Was all this good for their growing up?
You are assuming a fact not in evidence. Nonetheless, having a breadwinner travel far distances to support a family back home has a long tradition among many peoples.
Who's pocketing that enormous sum (TWO HUNDRED AND TWENTY THOUSAND DOLLARS! - how long does a Haitian take to earn that back in Haiti, anyway?) for the taxi medallion? How is that figure set? How much is the bank going to be taking in interest for the next, what was it, twenty years?
The person pocketing that sum is the person who once bought it for - almost certainly - a smaller price. During my brief, undistinguished career as a New York City cabbie (ca. 1974), I learned that a medallion cost around $65,000. If Mr. Beniste holds on to the medallion for 5-7 years, I suspect it may become worth around $250K. The figure is set by supply (fixed, by the city) and demand.
Given the capitalization rate for the taxi industry (10-15%), the average time to recover the cost of a medallion is probably 7-10 years. If Mr. Beniste is half the entrepreneur I think he is, he'll have the loan paid off sooner.
How much interest will he pay? I don't know, but I would venture to say it'll be less than what he'd pay for a home mortgage of the same size, since the term is probably 10 or 15 years.
(BTW, your parenthetical question is phrased incorrectly. It should read: "How many generations of a Haitian family does it take to earn $220,000 in Haiti?" The government down there has a long and distinguished tradition of looting the country in the Euopean tradition.)
This man is working 12 hour days for 14 years until now plus 20 years from now, not counting the work of that other driver on the night shift. Sounds like servitude to me! Oh, voluntary, for sure. Good thing that medallion doesn't cost more, as well it might!
When you work as a hack driver, you keep 40-50% of the fares you collect during the day. The rest goes to the owner of the cab, who gets to pay for the gas, maintenance, insurance, taxes, etc. associated with the business. Assuming Mr. Beniste keeps working the way he has, and since he'll now be collecting the owner's share for himself and the other driver, the time it will take to pay off the mediallion (at which point he will be sitting on $250,000 worth of equity, if the past is any indicator) should be about half of that 14 years (it would be a third, but there are those expenses to consider).
At that point, of course, he'll have a hell of a lot of options available, certainly more than another cabbie who might be content to drive a hack for 20 years. He might buy another mediallion or two and run a mini-fleet. He might stay with one car and hire a second driver to work his hours, thereby turn his investment into a positive cash flow without his having to do much work at all (the reward of voluntary servitude). Or he might sell his business (including his $250K medallion) to someone, retire (after 20 years of hard work, while the rest of us are still living paycheck-to-paycheck), and take the money back to Haiti with him, if he so chooses.
[...]I'd call it a racket. There are racketeers here, and profiteers. Oh, and let's include the man glowingly telling the story and the one writing it and the one posting it in LJ as uplifting.
You like this? You think entire societies can be based on it? Or only for the ones who beat their way to the top (or at least, scramble just high enough to get approved by the bank for a loan), and devil take the hindmost rest?
Do I like the fact that someone who starts out with nothing works hard, saves, and invests in a business is well on his way toward achieving a goal that will allow him and his family to live comfortably without having to break his back or send his kids into the cane fields? Um, yes.
It's something, in fact, that I pursue.
If you think this is all so wrong, tell me, whom did Mr. Beniste trample underfoot by working hard, saving his money, and buying a business? Whom will he be screwing by offering them a job?
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timeasmymeasure
Re: DOESN'T work for me!
Date: 2003-02-08 12:01 pm (UTC)You are assuming a fact not in evidence. Nonetheless, having a breadwinner travel far distances to support a family back home has a long tradition among many peoples.
Who's pocketing that enormous sum (TWO HUNDRED AND TWENTY THOUSAND DOLLARS! - how long does a Haitian take to earn that back in Haiti, anyway?) for the taxi medallion? How is that figure set? How much is the bank going to be taking in interest for the next, what was it, twenty years?
The person pocketing that sum is the person who once bought it for - almost certainly - a smaller price. During my brief, undistinguished career as a New York City cabbie (ca. 1974), I learned that a medallion cost around $65,000. If Mr. Beniste holds on to the medallion for 5-7 years, I suspect it may become worth around $250K. The figure is set by supply (fixed, by the city) and demand.
Given the capitalization rate for the taxi industry (10-15%), the average time to recover the cost of a medallion is probably 7-10 years. If Mr. Beniste is half the entrepreneur I think he is, he'll have the loan paid off sooner.
How much interest will he pay? I don't know, but I would venture to say it'll be less than what he'd pay for a home mortgage of the same size, since the term is probably 10 or 15 years.
(BTW, your parenthetical question is phrased incorrectly. It should read: "How many generations of a Haitian family does it take to earn $220,000 in Haiti?" The government down there has a long and distinguished tradition of looting the country in the Euopean tradition.)
This man is working 12 hour days for 14 years until now plus 20 years from now, not counting the work of that other driver on the night shift. Sounds like servitude to me! Oh, voluntary, for sure. Good thing that medallion doesn't cost more, as well it might!
When you work as a hack driver, you keep 40-50% of the fares you collect during the day. The rest goes to the owner of the cab, who gets to pay for the gas, maintenance, insurance, taxes, etc. associated with the business. Assuming Mr. Beniste keeps working the way he has, and since he'll now be collecting the owner's share for himself and the other driver, the time it will take to pay off the mediallion (at which point he will be sitting on $250,000 worth of equity, if the past is any indicator) should be about half of that 14 years (it would be a third, but there are those expenses to consider).
At that point, of course, he'll have a hell of a lot of options available, certainly more than another cabbie who might be content to drive a hack for 20 years. He might buy another mediallion or two and run a mini-fleet. He might stay with one car and hire a second driver to work his hours, thereby turn his investment into a positive cash flow without his having to do much work at all (the reward of voluntary servitude). Or he might sell his business (including his $250K medallion) to someone, retire (after 20 years of hard work, while the rest of us are still living paycheck-to-paycheck), and take the money back to Haiti with him, if he so chooses.
[...]I'd call it a racket. There are racketeers here, and profiteers. Oh, and let's include the man glowingly telling the story and the one writing it and the one posting it in LJ as uplifting.
You like this? You think entire societies can be based on it? Or only for the ones who beat their way to the top (or at least, scramble just high enough to get approved by the bank for a loan), and devil take the hindmost rest?
Do I like the fact that someone who starts out with nothing works hard, saves, and invests in a business is well on his way toward achieving a goal that will allow him and his family to live comfortably without having to break his back or send his kids into the cane fields? Um, yes.
It's something, in fact, that I pursue.
If you think this is all so wrong, tell me, whom did Mr. Beniste trample underfoot by working hard, saving his money, and buying a business? Whom will he be screwing by offering them a job?
Cheers...