The analogy life is like a taxi can be interpreted in many ways. One way that it could be interpreted is that the more you put into life or give to the taxi driver the farther you will go in life. Whether this is money you give to the taxi driver or time and effort that you put into your life. This analogy also fails in many ways, because nobody has a life expectancy meter and if they did it would constantly change unlike a taxi meter. The meters would be changing constantly based on what they did during their life. The two words used in the analogy must also be similar to each other to be an effective. Lou Erickso says, “Life is like a taxi. The meter just keeps a-ticking whether you are getting somewhere or just standing still.”

Life keeps on moving whether you do something with your life or not. Just like life a taxi won’t sit in the middle of the street waiting for you to decide where you want to go. A taxi and life are similar in the sense that if you don’t move forward you will not be successful and you will not make money. Days that are not used effectively and usefully are basically wasted as time passes by you. Life never slows down; it is always full speed ahead. Even if you do know where you want go, you must be able to communicate this to others. You’ll have trouble getting anywhere in life or in a taxi if you can’t if you can’t communicate with others. Communication is as important as the effort you are willing to put into to your life. The general rule is the harder you work and the more effort you put in to life the farther you will go. It doesn’t matter if you are rich or poor; you’ll make it farther in life if you work hard rather than doing nothing. The more effort translates to more money, which then makes sense with the analogy life is like a taxi. Consequently, this analogy fails to be true in many situations.

The analogy fails because there is no meter in your life. If there was a meter what would happen when someone died in an accident, would the meter just suddenly expire? There is nothing in our life that can tell us how long we are going to live and if there were it would change based on what you did in life. One thing that can change how long someone is going to live is the kind of work that they do. People with Stressful or dangerous jobs tend to die younger than people who have more relaxed jobs or that are “just standing still.” This would mean that the imaginary meter would speed up or slow down accordingly. This is one reason life is not like a taxi because taxies would never have a meter that would change depending on your job or no one would use them. To further understand the analogy you must look at the meaning of both words.

The words life and taxi can be defined by the Merriam-Webster dictionary. If the two meanings do not match or are not even remotely similar then the analogy is untrue. A taxi is defined as an automobile that carries passengers for a fare usually determined by the distance traveled. While life, instead is defined as the sequence of physical and mental experiences that make up the existence of an individual. Life is not a vehicle of any kind and it is not used to transport people and a taxi is not a sequence of experiences. The meaning of life and the meaning of a taxi are not even remotely similar and would be difficult to make connections between the two. Therefore making the analogy life is like a taxi false.

As the analogy life is like a taxi can be interpreted in many ways only one was found to accept the analogy. The more that you put into life or give to the taxi driver the farther you will go in life, this reason worked with the analogy. All other reasons proved this analogy to be greatly false since nobody has a life expectancy meter. Even if a life expectancy meter existed it would change based one what a person did with their life. This is very unlike any meter that would be associated with a taxi. The two words used in the analogy were also not similar making it an ineffective and false analogy.