The Uber driver probably made more than the taxi driver would have because they don't have to pay the hefty daily cab rental fees or rent a medallion. It's not like taxi drivers were rolling in cash before Uber came around.
The Uber driver probably made more because Uber is spending VC money to build both sides of its market to achieve a monopoly, from which (once achieved) it can extract rents to pay investors back (at least, that's the plan.)
