“Man goes to foreign country, talks to his taxi driver, writes article about it” has famously been the lowest form of journalism for well over a century.
Nevertheless … the nature of the North American World Cup, with its games in far-flung cities dotted around a giant continent, is that you end up spending a lot of time driving around in taxis, or to be specific, using “ride-share” apps like Uber and Lyft. In much of the non-coastal United States, the apps are effectively the public transport.
Most of the drivers are not really taxi drivers; nearly all of them say Uber is their second job. Take Justin in Houston, who explained that he was a heavy mechanic who was at that moment mulling over an attractive job offer in Alaska. A firm in Anchorage was going to pay him $85 (€74) an hour to work 80 hours a week – three weeks on, three weeks off.
The problem was that he had recently split up with his wife. Their two children lived with him, but if he was going to be in Alaska for three weeks in every six, he needed the ex-wife to step up on the childcare front.
He said she made $1,800 a month in her current job and he had offered her $3,000 to quit and look after the children while he was away. Much to his frustration, she was refusing to play ball.
Uber has a search filter which allows you to specify “no conversation”, but I’m not sure why anyone would do this. Like Justin, many Americans are startlingly open and seem quite prepared to tell you, a total stranger, everything about their lives.
BONUS: The round one wrap up, Jesse Marsch’s hubris and Canada’s pyrrhic victory with Kevin Kilbane
One recurring topic with the drivers is Uber itself, specifically the percentage of each fare which Uber takes for itself. The drivers know less about this than you might expect, because they don’t know what fare the customer is paying unless the customer tells them.
Milton – “like John” – was a white-haired 71-year-old life insurance salesman who drove me three miles back to my accommodation in Houston. I asked how much he was making from my $15 fare, and the answer was $6. He said Uber’s terms used to be much more favourable, but since it had achieved market dominance it was steadily hiking up its cut and the drivers had little choice but to go along.
He shared his theory that the algorithm quickly gets a sense of how price-insensitive the customer is, and if they seem to have a high degree of tolerance for higher fares, then it systematically charges them more.
“Is that communism?” he asked.
“I think that’s capitalism,” I replied.
“The other C”, said Milton, who sounded like he was a fan of neither. Though his “communism” theory implies Uber’s pricing strategy has enshrined the principle “from each according to his ability”, so maybe he was on to something.
I told Milton I had earlier seen Texas senator Ted Cruz speaking at the local Republican Party convention. Milton was a Cruz fan: “He is the most brilliant man in Washington. He has eidetic memory? He speaks his mind. And just because he happens to be conservative, his opinions are unpopular.”
I said surely his opinions aren’t unpopular here in Texas, but Milton quickly shot back: “This is a blue city. All the people who are looking for a handout, who want taxes raised on other people but not on them – they’re all here in the city.”
The most candid driver on the subject of money was Eh, a 25-year-old from Myanmar, or as he called it, Burma, who drove me to the airport in Kansas City. “Most people, they have a policy they don’t talk about their salary, I don’t give a damn! I like to be honest. You ask me! Other people, oooh I can’t tell you that? Get outta here.”
Right now, he was driving 60 hours a week to earn $5,500 a month. When I said that was lots of hours, he scoffed: “What else I gonna do? Sleep?”
It was better than his old job at a candy factory. “I had to work like an animal! I carry the 30lb box, two thousand boxes a day. Thirty pounds, it’s not heavy, but to carry all day? I’m not animal. My cheque, I clear only $360 a week? I’m like – dayummm! I not go to school for this? I want more!”
After a couple of years making more, he had used his savings to buy 22 acres of land back in Burma for, he said, $38,000. His ambition was to become a billionaire – specifically in the currency of his home country. XE.com says the Myanmar Kyat trades at 2,100 to the dollar, but according to Eh, who might know more about where to change his money, the rate was 4,200.
His plan was that in 10 years or so, he would return home to be reunited with his wife. “Burma girl much better than American girl. They can cook!”
Lyft was paying Eh $32 from my $50 fare. I asked what he thought of them taking more than a third of the fare, since he had provided the car and was doing all the actual work. He accepted it as the natural order of things. “That’s why America become richer. We here, we have to follow the rule. It’s not my country, so follow the rule. I pay tax, of course. If you are owner of company, money come to you. You not, find money, money come to you. You need to be an owner. If you’re not an owner, you have to follow the rule, pay everything.”
I asked what kind of business he was going to set up to become an owner and he reminded me of the 22 acres he already owned in Burma.
The drivers’ levels of interest in the World Cup could be characterised as low-to-medium. Everyone at least knows that it’s on. Milton back in Houston was annoyed that Fifa had demanded the local stadium be called the Houston Stadium. “We’re NRG Park!”
Thierno, a middle-school science teacher in Philadelphia, claimed to have watched nearly every game but not, as he had initially hoped, in person. He wanted to see the matches at least in Philadelphia, then the prices gave him no chance. “I call it the World Cup of the rich.” You’re not alone, Thierno.
Jean, a 60-something Haitian in Houston, was the biggest football fan among the drivers. Disappointed by his team’s defeat to “Ecosse”, he was undaunted by the forthcoming challenge of Brazil: “We are not gonna let them beat us like trash.”
He believed this World Cup would produce a first-time winner, and surprisingly he was rooting for Holland. “Netherland deserve to be championship! They have good, best player – Gullit – and other, I forget his name, the one who never take a flight? They are so good! Why do they never be championship?”
Jean regarded North America 2026 with enthusiasm that was almost infectious in its purity. “It is really good tournament, because World Cup don’t have any discrimination. Whatever you are, whatever country you are … even, like you see: America fight with Iran, Iran gonna play with America. Forget about your big weapon. Forget about your big warship. Forget about your big plane. Forget about your missile. Let’s play football. Let’s play soccer! We’re not gonna fight. We’re not gonna anything like that. Be fair play!”
