Thus, the ride-sharing market offers a real-life illustration of the old economist's joke: "We're losing money on every unit, but we'll make it up in volume!" Unfortunately for us riders, there's only so much cheap investment money, and only so many inexperienced drivers, out there. Once Uber and Lyft have burned through those, they're going to have to charge us what the rides are actually worth. Customers will be in for a rude shock.