Manila

[QUOTE=Kazeu;2226104]I am perfectly willing to pay higher fares, let them raise the metered fare to something livable. Then you don't have to deal with this haggling and harrassment whenever you get into a taxi.[/QUOTE]I doubt that's going to happen. Filipinos are good at organizing "people's organizations" that represent their various marginal interest groups: tricycle drivers, jeepney drivers, street-side fruit vendors, and so on. There are even some umbrella organizations around Manila that lobby politicians on behalf of these little organizations. But the general outcome is that, because the individuals in these groups are poor, any gains from their organizing are marginal at best, keeping them from backsliding further. Real power is in the hands of several dozen families who control provincial property and metro economic interests. Taxi drivers simply lack the clout to change their circumstances, and nobody else is interested in fixing these things for them.

[QUOTE=WestCoast1;2225421]I've asked many drivers the costs for renting / operating for the day. Some days the driver will lose at the end of the day (example: bad weather means fewer people standing / walking outside needing a taxi), and others he might make bank (a bit like farming). None of that (IMO) justifies cheating foreigners (which puts the Racism card in play) or anyone else. I would much rather the driver negotiate up front a higher-than-meter fare, or refuse to take me, rather than be surprised with cheating. I also recognize the culture in Phils is immature, and often condones lying / cheating; many people here would take the driver's side, hence a cultural divide.[/QUOTE]Usually the working poor take the side of the working poor (except in the United States and Singapore where they rabidly support the filthy rich). As a note of clarity: taxi drivers sometimes lose money in most countries. It even happens in New York City on a regular basis, and it happened long before Grab or Uber came around.

That's the risk of running a business. Taxi drivers are mostly small business owners. A lot of coffee shops and restaurants go out of business. I don't see anyone volunteering to pay double for a cup of Joe.

[QUOTE=WestCoast1;2225152] My suggestion: keep quiet, and at the end of the ride hand the driver a reasonable fare, and walk away. He's not going to dick over any of that. I've been using this tactic for several years now. No driver is going to call the police (after not using his meter), and he can't get another fare without you departing his vehicle (if he won't take your reasonable amount, he can't get on to his next customer). He may be disappointed to get 200 instead of 500, but he lives to fight another day (fare). He also learns that applying the foreigner tax doesn't always work.[/QUOTE]American Man Killed by Thai Taxi Driver for Refusing to Pay 53 Cent Fare: [URL]https://tastythailand.com/american-killed-by-thai-taxi-driver-for-refusing-to-pay-53-cent-fare/[/URL].

[QUOTE=RickRock;2226575].....

I don't see anyone volunteering to pay double for a cup of Joe.[/QUOTE]Been to Starbucks lately?

If I could not get a cup of coffee because all the coffee shops were full of people buying lower priced coffee, I would make the decision to either pay double at a place I could get into or going without the coffee.

I'd prefer to pay double for my Grab rides if I could get a booking every try. I have spend longer in trying to make a booking than it would take to walk and we are talking about a 4 to 5 km ride. More than an hour in the app trying to get the ride booked, then about a 30 minute wait for the driver to show up hoping all the time that he was not going to cancel before he got there. (Would have just about made it there and back on foot by the time Grab got me there.).

I have platinum status on Grab which is supposed to prioritize my rides.

The problem is the taxi board is limiting drivers to 65,000 for all cabs plus grab. With about 10,000 licensed drivers no longer active and no purging of the inactive drivers, we get a situation with insufficient numbers of drivers for the demand. The solution is to either expand the number of available drivers and or increase the prices to encourage drivers to work more and fewer people to take rides.

[QUOTE=RickRock;2226577]American Man Killed by Thai Taxi Driver for Refusing to Pay 53 Cent Fare: [URL]https://tastythailand.com/american-killed-by-thai-taxi-driver-for-refusing-to-pay-53-cent-fare/[/URL].[/QUOTE]I was in Jamaica a long time ago when a German tourist was killed in an altercation over a spilled cup of soup worth two bits.

To me it is not worth getting into an argument, let alone assaulted or having the police involved or even killed over a sum that is of absolutely no consequence to me but significant to the local. If I am ripped off the 50 p or so means a lot more to the local than to me and not worth getting worked up over.

I pay double or triple for a good cup of coffee in a foreign country. I pay double or triple for a great fuck. I pay double or triple for a great meal. I am not alone in this.

I am willing to pay extra for the value. Sometimes the cheapest is not the cheapest!

In my profession I easily charge double and get it. I pass on cheap Charlies simply because they do not understand the value of anything nor the economics of it.

Now sex related, I have paid double and have received triple value.

[QUOTE=RickRock;2226577]American Man Killed by Thai Taxi Driver for Refusing to Pay 53 Cent Fare: [URL]https://tastythailand.com/american-killed-by-thai-taxi-driver-for-refusing-to-pay-53-cent-fare/[/URL].[/QUOTE]I'll bite. The situation in BKK was not analagous with the situation in Manila. In BKK, the driver was appropriately running his meter, and the customer was being an asshole (not saying he deserved what happened). In my case in Manila, several drivers in a row purposely attempted a scam. However I think your point is that at anytime someone other than yourself (the driver in the BKK case) could go off the rails and do something stupid.

[QUOTE=KabulGuy;2226638]I was in Jamaica a long time ago when a German tourist was killed in an altercation over a spilled cup of soup worth two bits.

To me it is not worth getting into an argument, let alone assaulted or having the police involved or even killed over a sum that is of absolutely no consequence to me but significant to the local. If I am ripped off the 50 p or so means a lot more to the local than to me and not worth getting worked up over.[/QUOTE]The drivers in Manila are ripping you off for considerably more than p50. At what point over p50 do you not put up with that? If the driver makes his normal profit today driving his cab, and overcharges half a dozen fares today by p300 each, then in one day he is earning 3 day's profit (is my math off). The drivers I was speaking of weren't negotiating up front extra pay for more difficult traffic (traffic was light), they were simply scamming by not turning on the meter and asking an exorbitant price later. Drivers rarely say anything when I hand them a reasonable fare. In fact, the ripoff situation for me seems to happen much less frequently than it does for other gents. Other than the recent set, its rare for me that a driver (anywhere in Phils) has pulled this (many years ago this was fairly common).

[QUOTE=GreenBud;2225162]I would be paranoid about getting into a physical beef with the taxi driver.[/QUOTE]Never. I'm never paranoid about such. Can't live like that. There is a trusted system in place already: the metered fare (with addition for traffic and such) which is known up front. Drivers (and customers, such as the BKK fella) who violate that really are assholes. Being afraid that they 'might' react poorly really is paranoia. Its akin to being afraid that my mother might get a machette and hack me to death for that time that I didn't mow the grass when I was 14 years old. Don't let that BKK thing scare you; you'd be afraid everytime you got into a taxi.

[QUOTE=Dg8787;2226639]I pay double or triple for a good cup of coffee in a foreign country. I pay double or triple for a great fuck. I pay double or triple for a great meal. I am not alone in this.[/QUOTE]Question: How do you know the first time (before you buy) that its a great cup of coffee, great f*ck, or great meal?

[QUOTE=WestCoast1;2226734]Question: How do you know the first time (before you buy) that its a great cup of coffee, great f*ck, or great meal?[/QUOTE]That is the same question I had. I figured he just waited til the end and added the double and triple as a tip.

[QUOTE=RickRock;2226575]Usually the working poor take the side of the working poor (except in the United States and Singapore where they rabidly support the filthy rich).

(snip)

That's the risk of running a business. Taxi drivers are mostly small business owners. [/QUOTE]Chuckle. I agree that in the states poor people often vote against their economic interests. Two possible explanations. One, many are not very bright and are easily duped by smart people with money and access to a public microphone to use in marketing and lobbying to protect (and increase) their own wealth. Two, in a country that entertains the individualistic value that people succeed by pulling themselves up by their own bootstraps, many poor people entertain the myth that they too will someday be wealthy, so they want institutions in place that will support their imagined future run at riches. I'd love to know why this pattern exists in Singapore as well.

Keep in mind that most taxi drivers in the Philippines, as elsewhere, do not own their own taxis. So cab drivers are small business owners only in the sense that they own their own time. In the Philippines most taxis are owned in fleets by wealthier individuals. In an earlier post GE explained the substantial daily lease that drivers pay to owners, in addition to paying for the fuel they consume. So profit for the fleet owners turns only indirectly on the individual fare rates. More directly, their profit turns on the daily lease rate that they charge to the drivers. So the politics about fares affects the drivers more directly than the owners, and, as I suggested earlier, the drivers, as poor people, don't heft very much clout in changing the system.

[QUOTE=WestCoast1;2226734]Question: How do you know the first time (before you buy) that its a great cup of coffee, great f*ck, or great meal?[/QUOTE]I am looking at 3 restaurants. One charges 500 p for a meal, one charges 1000 p and the other charges 1500 p for a meal. The description on them all reads the same.

Is it the same meal, offered with the same service or is one served on paper plates and plastic cutlery in a stand up eating place. Is one served on fine dishes with table cloths and well trained wait staff? Granted all will satisfy your physical hunger but some will satisfy you in a more pleasurable manner than the others.

There are ways to judge the offering before committing, sometimes we are wrong and the fine dining has a tough steak, it may be false advertising or it may just be that they had an off night. The stand up street food may turn out to be delicious and very satisfying or it may give you a serious case of the trots. There is only one guarantee in this life and that is that you will not get out of it alive.

Experienced mongers can tell if the lady is a low class meth head with no redeeming qualities other than accessible orifices and a different lady is a higher class educated woman who will be a pleasure to be with not only sexually but as a companion for either ST or LT. The clues may be harder to discover than in the case of a greasy spoon diner and a fine restaurant but they are there if you know where to look. Sometimes just treating the lady with respect and showing that you are not a low class cheap Charley during the negotiations can be the determining factor.

If you are so scared that the fine dining will not live up to its promises that you only eat at the greasy spoons, then you are not taking the slight risk in trying and experiencing the finer things in life.

[QUOTE=KabulGuy;2226814]I am looking at 3 restaurants. One charges 500 p for a meal, one charges 1000 p and the other charges 1500 p for a meal. The description on them all reads the same.

Experienced mongers can tell if the lady is a low class meth head with no redeeming qualities other than accessible orifices and a different lady is a higher class educated woman who will be a pleasure to be with not only sexually but as a companion for either ST or LT. The clues may be harder to discover than in the case of a greasy spoon diner and a fine restaurant but they are there if you know where to look. Sometimes just treating the lady with respect and showing that you are not a low class cheap Charley during the negotiations can be the determining factor.

If you are so scared that the fine dining will not live up to its promises that you only eat at the greasy spoons, then you are not taking the slight risk in trying and experiencing the finer things in life.[/QUOTE]A few things wrong in your post. First, all women have a pussy. How much money she has or how much money she charges you has nothing to do with how good her pussy or sex is.

Second, speaking on price points a prime example is that you can go into a soapie in Thailand where chicks wear different badges to specify how much you have to pay. You can go in one day and a chick has on a $70 badge and go in next week and the same chick has a $50 badge. What more would you get the day she has on the $70 badge?

Third, from the Bogota thread the other day. It is often said that in the cheap ghetto area of Santa Fe you can find the same chicks that you will see in more upscale places. Many guys never believe it, but those of us in the know know how true it is. One guy posted a report 2 days ago about his first trip going to Santa Fe and he saw a chick that he had known from an upscale place working in the hood for way cheaper.

I have also reported a few months back talking to a chick in a $30 hooker spot in Thailand that said at night she goes to her second job which is a spot that costs you over $100. So how would this chick's pussy felt any different by picking her up at the $120 spot over the $30 spot? In either circumstance would this experienced monger (that you have named) have looked at the chick at the cheaper spot and "known" she was worth way more or would he have looked at her at the more expensive spot and "known" she was not worth that much?

Fourth, why would you assume a higher class educated woman's sex would be any better than a chick that dropped out of preschool? And if she was that higher class and educated then more than likely she would not be flat-backing. When you show me the porn star with the PhD I will retract that statement.

[QUOTE=Dg8787;2226639]I pay double or triple Sometimes the cheapest is not the cheapest!

In my profession I easily charge double and get it.[/QUOTE]You must work in sales. I understand what you are saying but as others have pointed out the price paid does not always reflect the value received. I pay my main squeeze in the Caribbean 4000 pesos (roughly $88), twice the normal amount, but she's drop dead gorgeous 42 F cup tits (not fat) and lets me video the whole thing, always provides superb service with a big smile. She's fucking awesome!

[QUOTE=MrEnternational;2226847]A few things wrong in your post. First, all women have a pussy. How much money she has or how much money she charges you has nothing to do with how good her pussy or sex is.

...[/QUOTE]Obviously you view women as simply the means of conveying around orifices that are all identical and interchangeable. You don't see women as having any redeeming social value except to have orifices into which you will stick your dick.

I truly feel sorry for you. You don't know what you are missing.