Taxi Mafia

[cvchief]

No te preocupes, chief... Should I wear a flower in my hair when next we meet? :blinking:

Yea! You do make the hippy, dive bum lifestyle look good!

 

[DandyDon]

Good grief.

I know. I try to keep up with the posts, but some people run on & on about nothing.

(1) We have the fare sheet now. Christi got it for us. But for simplicity, ask before boarding - even tho we shouldn't have to, and it's a pain.

(2) Don't use US Dollars in Mexico - unless you will accept the offered rate without whining.

 

[ggunn]

You seem to have a huge disconnection from reality in how a taxi ride works, and secondly your ethical standards apparently are based on a combination of what you can get away with, and survival of the fittest, with every transactions outcome being based on two people doing battle, where the winner takes the spoils and damn the loser for being weak and therefore deserving and justified to be taken advantage of.

It sounds like the free market system to me.

But why do you always (seemingly always, anyway) attempt to paint anyone who disagrees with you as intellectually or morally deficient?

 

[cvchief]

I know. I try to keep up with the posts, but some people run on & on about nothing.

(1) We have the fare sheet now. Christi got it for us. But for simplicity, ask before boarding - even tho we shouldn't have to, and it's a pain.

(2) Don't use US Dollars in Mexico - unless you will accept the offered rate without whining.

So again, argue the rate sheet, but not the exchange rate even though you know some taxis give a fair rate. Check. That makes sense.

Seriously, Don, you think you deserve whatever exchange is offered because of the dollars. I mean even after we have been told that the rate for dollars IS negotiable with the drivers? It sounds like some sort of guilt for being a gringo. I just can't see the sense in telling those with dollars to suck it up buttercup and not try for fair treatment. I would always recommend pesos, but while I think it is generally a better idea and I agree with the idea of using the local currency, I don't think that means you have to accept a beating for dollars.


I am beginning to think I am intellectually deficient....

 

[Zman96]

Chief it is very simple when you ask for the rate when you get in, if you want to use dollars ask for that amount as well. If the rate is not what it should be, either pay in Pesos or exit the cab and negotiate the next. Just because they can, doesn't mean it is right, but since the cabs are a monopoly that is heavily unionized in MEXICO and you are a North American, the only vote you have is with your wallet. I think you are as you stated earlier just wanting to talk about Cozumel at this point and this back and forth has become tedious. I think it is now time for a Best Dive Op Thread or Why AI's are Great Thread.

 

[Mossman]

I disagree that dollars aren't the local currency. How many transactions on the island are conducted in dollars versus how many in pesos? Just because pesos may be the national currency hardly means they're the local currency.

 

[chillyinCanada]

$.50 really?! Geez you guys! Let's go diving.

 

[Mike]

I disagree that dollars aren't the local currency. How many transactions on the island are conducted in dollars versus how many in pesos? Just because pesos may be the national currency hardly means they're the local currency.

Exactly what I've been saying all this time. It's pure fantasy that you're doing something wrong culturally or economically using US dollars in Cozumel or any other Mexican tourist destination, these destinations thrive and have flourished for the very reason that US dollars flow into Mexico through them. The US dollar is the most stable currency in the world and accepted around the world and is considered the only "World Currency" in existence. Mexico is 'unofficially dollarized' and that's a real economic term and a real situation not just something I made up. The Mexican government enjoys the benefits of this unofficial dollarization being able to both enjoy the benefits of having US dollars stabilize it's economy and hold back inflation by allowing them not to have to dillute the value of the Peso, while at the same time keeping an official currency and all the benefits of it. The US dollar and the Euro function the same way in Europe where the US dollar is readily accepted as local currency just like it is in Mexico.

So again, the price of something is the price, it makes no difference what currency you pay with, the value of the product stays the same, and you convert the amount of the currency based on the exchange rate, the vendor could careless what you pay with in regard to the price, the only reason there is a game going on with 10:1 is because the dishonest vendors discovered a new income stream by ripping off Americans with a bogus exchange rate over the years as the ratio changed from 10:1 which it was for so long. They aren't losing money by accepting US dollars, you aren't ruining their culture. The local economy of Cozumel or any tourist area in Mexico thrives on the US dollar, if it didn't they would not be accepted.

Mexico wants US dollars. If you don't think so, then ask yourself why can't Mexicans use Pesos in the US, but Americans can use dollars in Mexico? The answer to that is the answer to all of this, because the US dollar is THE currency of the world, not the peso.

---------- Post added July 16th, 2013 at 07:31 AM ----------

It sounds like the free market system to me.

But why do you always (seemingly always, anyway) attempt to paint anyone who disagrees with you as intellectually or morally deficient?

If the shoe fits it fits. If you feel guilty, you probably are.

The same people who try to use the "free market" excuse are the same people who cause us to have to have so much government intervention in the 'free' market. When somebody uses the 'free' market to sell an elderly couple $5000 worth of windows for $50,000 that's the 'free market' working according to the window company. The United States has over 200,000 laws on the books to regulate the 'free' market. That's a lot of rules and regulations for something labelled 'free'.

 

[DjDiverDan]

So,

1. If you are overcharged on the fare, shame on the taxi driver and you can't do anything about it. Which apparently happens because the market allows it....

2. If you are overcharged on the exchange, shame on you because it is legal and you can't do anything about it. Which apparently happens because the market allows it......

And I am wrong, because I say,

1. Don't get overcharged on the fare, and;

2. Don't get overcharged on the exchange.

and we should:

1. Tell people about the correct fare, but;

2. Hide the fact that 10 to 1 as an exchange rates stinks unless someone asks me.


Gotcha.

Chief, I swear you are now just making **** up. If you are going to disagree with me, at least do me the courtesy of disagreeing with what I actually said, rather than ascribing to me a position which I have never, ever taken.

as to 1. above, I NEVER said that "you can't do anything about it." The official taxi rate sheet may be hard to find, but it's not impossible. Everyone can find it if they make the effort. And if a taxi driver tries to charge me 100 Pesos for a ride which should be 60 Pesos, shame on him for being dishonest, but I'm only going to pay him 60 Pesos and tell him to shove it. I encourage others to do likewise.

as to 2. above, I agree that it is legal, it's rational behavior on the part of the taxi driver, and it is NOT "dishonest" or "unfair" or in any way blameworthy. But again, I NEVER said "you can't do anything about it." Indeed, if you even bothered to READ my post, you would know that I recommended exchanging one's Dollars for Pesos at a more favorable rate at another location - a bank, a cambio, or a hotel - or changing cabs.

And I never disagreed with your position that we shouldn't get overcharged on either the fare or the exchange rate - I specifically supported taking the actions necessary to get the right fare (in Pesos) from the cab driver, and getting the best deal possible on exchange rates. Further, your assertion that I am in favor of "hiding" ANY fact is pure canard. I NEVER advocated hiding anything from anybody. Indeed, I specifically advocated the position that Americans ought to make the effort to learn all relevant facts.

The only point on which I disagreed with you was your assertion that the use of a 10-1 exchange rate by taxi drivers was somehow unfair or morally blameworthy. I contended, and still maintain, that currency exchange rates are and should be a matter of free-market exchanges, with prices set by the market in a series of voluntary exchanges. No cab driver on Cozumel has ever, to my knowledge, put a gun to anyone's head and forced a rider into an exchange of Pesos for Dollars at a 10-1 exchange rate. Every rider has a choice, and every rider has the capacity to obtain sufficient information to know whether or not 10-1 is a good rate or a bad one, and every rider can, if he or she is so inclined, identify and use alternate means of obtaining Pesos at a much better exchange rate. Don't blame the taxi drivers for setting an exchange rate which is in their own best interests when the only "victims" of those exchange rates are people to stupid or lazy to take steps to avoid being taken.

The other point on which we apparently disagree (and on which I most certainly disagree with Mike) is how we ought to treat American tourists - should we assume that American tourists are adults, with the brains and capacity to watch out for themselves, with the ability to locate and use the information which is freely available out there so that they don't get taken on EITHER the cab rates OR the exchange rates? Or should we assume that American tourists are helpless children, incapable of finding or using information, unable to protect themselves from the predations of cab drivers acting as currency exchanges, and needing the protection of government intervention. I prefer to think that we are adults who are capable of protecting ourselves, and that any tourist who gets "taken" by a bad exchange rate offered by a cab driver through ignorance or sloth is simply not a person that I ought to be concerned about. If we really want to protect those folks by government action, then my own preference is that we pull their passports or require, as a condition of any foreign travel, that they be accompanied by a competent adult.

 

[DandyDon]

I disagree that dollars aren't the local currency. How many transactions on the island are conducted in dollars versus how many in pesos? Just because pesos may be the national currency hardly means they're the local currency.

In such cases, the conversion rate is already built in and hidden. Happy with that?

It still does not make the USD the coin of the realm.