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The Time a Taxi Driver Stole My Money

2016-04-29 · story · Hank · 3:54 · watch on YouTube

Topic: Philosophy & meaning (also: Personal life) · mode: Personal essay

Hank tells how a friendly Bay Area taxi driver overcharged him about $60 and argues that the real cost of such betrayals is not the money but the distrust they breed, since society needs people to be able to trust each other.

What is said

The parts of the video and what is said in each (★ — how much it matters to the video).

00:00:00 — Vlogbrothers has been fancy lately; time to simplify and tell a story

  • ★ Hank feels Vlogbrothers has been fancy lately (a music video, a collab, travel vlogs, tax plans, a Brazil video, John's Monopoly review), so he will simplify and just tell a story. (hedged) — 00:00:01 · Vlogbrothers

00:00:11 — The taxi story: a friendly driver, a 'fallen-out' meter cable, $120 to the hotel versus $65 back

  • ★★★ A couple of years ago (2014), in the Bay Area for the launch of Randall Munroe's book What If?, Hank took a taxi whose very nice driver chatted with him about Montana and his trip. — 00:00:13 · Montana
  • ★ Hank calls What If? a fantastic book and says he read the driver a bit of it because it is such a great thing to share with people. (hedged) — 00:00:29
  • ★★ A paragraph into the reading, the driver said the meter's cable had fallen out so the first part was unrecorded, and he would just charge the usual price for the trip: $120. — 00:00:39
  • ★★★ The next morning a taxi from the same hotel to the airport cost $65, and Hank realised the first driver had overcharged him. — 00:00:58
  • ★★ Hank says he immediately suspected the driver's niceness was a ploy and felt ashamed to have been a country bumpkin rube, the mark and the patsy, an idiot for trusting. (playful) — 00:01:28

00:01:36 — Rethinking his policy of over-trusting; the real cost of taking advantage of trust is that society cannot afford to stop trusting

  • ★★★ Hank says this one small incident made him rethink his deliberate policy of being intentionally over-trusting, which he really thinks about and wants to keep. — 00:01:42
  • ★★★ Hank says losing $50-60 was by far not the worst effect; worse were the new theft-protection habits and a wall between him and the world that lessens his enjoyment of it. — 00:01:55
  • ★★ Hank finds it absurd that he, a straight white man with money who has the world on his side, rethinks all other humans after one little betrayal. — 00:02:16
  • ★★ Hank says maybe every act of trust is a gamble, but being taken advantage of feels far worse than having your trust justified. (hedged) — 00:02:28
  • ★★ Hank says the theft is far down the scale of violations of trust, and if he lets it change how he sees the world, that is bad for him, not for the thief. (hedged) — 00:02:41
  • ★★★ Against thieves who rationalise that victims can afford it, Hank says maybe he can afford $60, but society cannot afford to be constantly looking over its shoulder. (hedged) — 00:03:17
  • ★★★ Hank says we have to be able to trust each other, or society falls apart. — 00:03:26
  • ★★★ Hank says that lost trust, not the theft, is the true, unrecognised cost of taking advantage of people's trust; it makes the world significantly worse and makes him really angry. — 00:03:29

00:03:44 — End screen: street team form for Hank's upcoming tour

  • ★★ On the end screen Hank invites viewers interested in being part of a street team for his upcoming tour to fill out the form linked in the description. — 00:03:46

In the description and comments

  • ★★ In the description Hank says driving a taxi is not a great job and drivers deserve more pay, but he dislikes attitudes that let people break trust and take advantage of others. — video description
  • ★★ Hank says the wariness that being taken advantage of leaves often makes him think he is being ripped off when he is not; balancing openness to the world against protecting yourself from exploitation isn't easy, and he is lucky to be able to be fairly open and take risks others might not afford. — video description
  • ★★ Hank says street-team members get a bunch of posters and stickers to give away and put up around town or campus, plus free merch at the show (a T-shirt or CD), and links a sign-up form. — video description
  • ★★ Hank lists the all-ages tour dates: Lawrence (May 16), Dallas, Houston, Austin, El Paso, Tucson, Anaheim, two nights in San Francisco, Los Angeles and San Diego (May 26), then Salt Lake City, Denver and Omaha (May 28-30) without Hank. — video description · Los Angeles · first in: 2011-11-14, T-Shirt and Jeans - A Song

Threads in this video

Mentioned

Central: trust

Also: Brazil · Monopoly (game) · Montana · San Francisco Bay Area · social privilege · What If?

Only in the description or credits: Anaheim, California · Austin, Texas · Dallas · Denver · El Paso, Texas · Houston, Texas · Lawrence, Kansas · Los Angeles · Omaha · Randall Munroe · Salt Lake City · San Diego · San Francisco · Tour Because Awesome · Tucson, Arizona

Also centred on trust: The Kony 2012 of Roads - Solar Freakin' Roadways · My Ballot Made Me Angry · How Actually Crazy is This Mess? · Two Unrelated Destroyers of Trust

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