Here is the story. And here is the part where I ask (again) why it is that so many protectionists are willing to try to sabotage Uber and UberX, and by extension, sabotage the lives of those who depend on Uber and UberX to put food on the table and a roof over their heads and the heads of their loved ones.
Pejman Yousefzadeh
Pejman Yousefzadeh
Scribbling, scribbling, scribbling on the Internet.
Tagged Regulation
Seattle, Meet Brussels. You Two Will Get Along Just Fine.
I suppose that I should look on the bright side in reading this story; maybe as a takeaway, I can be comforted by the fact that certain American cities don’t have a monopoly on perpetrating outrages against their citizens and the free market. But I confess to believing that any such comfort is of the cold variety: A court in Brussels has banned Uber in the Belgian and European Union capital, promising to fine the ride-sharing service 10,000 euros every time it violates the order. The Commercial Court in Brussels handed down the ruling last week, according to Tech.eu, summarizing an original report by the…
Seattle’s City Council Fails Its Constituents
I don’t know what possessed Seattle’s city council to side with the taxicab cartel instead of siding with the residents of the city, but I do know that the move is utterly unjustified, goes against the interests of the residents of the city, and makes a mockery of free market competition. I can only hope that the city’s mayor will veto this awful legislation, but regardless of what happens, there are a whole bunch of politicians who need to be put out of work once the next citywide election rolls around. Oh, and this is reprehensible: There is also some…
Uber, Traditional Taxicabs and the Failure of Regulation
Read Larry Downes’s comparison of UberX to a traditional metered cab, and you will readily understand why the following is happening: So traditional taxi and limo services are responding the only way they know how to—by using legal challenges and regulatory obstacles to block or even ban the services. In some cities, including Portland and Miami, they have so far been successful. In other locations, including the District of Columbia the start-ups have managed to deploy their fanatical customers to help put pressure on local regulatory boards to reverse earlier bans. What started out as a fight over price and…
When Regulations Attack . . . and Small Government Advocates Are Responsible
I understand that certain regulations are necessary to prevent fraud, or to ensure that a certain class of individuals aren’t made eligible for a certain class of benefits. But I am with Will Baude and Jacob Levy, who criticize the fact that in the latest farm bill, small-government advocates (Republicans, specifically) have helped ensure the existence of a larger government with more intrusive regulations in order to enforce zero tolerance policies that cost more to implement than they will ever bring about in savings. Quoth Levy: And so poor people will be subjected to another set of forms, another set of…
In Memoriam: Ronald H. Coase
The great man lived for over a century, but as is the case with the passing of other great and productive minds, one feels as though the world did not have him for nearly as long as he was needed. Here is the University of Chicago Law School remembrance, which helps sum up his extraordinary legacy: Coase, the Clifton R. Musser Professor Emeritus of Economics, is best known for his 1937 paper, “The Nature of the Firm,” which offered groundbreaking insights about why firms exist and established the field of transaction cost economics, and “The Problem of Social Cost,” published in 1960,…
Adventures in Overregulation
“Feds Require Magicians To Make Disaster Plans For Their Bunnies.”
