Scribbling, scribbling, scribbling on the Internet.
Another day, another report about how taxicab cartels are scared of competition: Uber's low-cost ride ride-hailing service will be banned in France from the start of next year, the government said Monday as hundreds of taxi drivers blocked roads around Paris to protest what they claim are its unfair business practices. A new law tightening …
Continue reading "“No Consumer Choice, Please. We Are French.”"
Free market competition can lower prices and help consumers: In major cities throughout the United States, taxi medallion prices are tumbling as taxis face competition from car-service apps like Uber and Lyft. The average price of an individual New York City taxi medallion fell to $872,000 in October, down 17 percent from a peak reached …
Competition in the marketplace is a good thing! It’s like Uber, for economists. Simply click on the website of the Economic Experts panel hosted by the Initiative on Global Markets at the University of Chicago, and it will immediately summon an easily digested summary of the insights of mainstream economics into continuing political controversies. As …
Continue reading "Your Absolutely Non-Shocking News of the Day"
Do you want there to be competition and diversity in limousine/ride-sharing/taxicab services? Do you live in Virginia? If the answer to both questions is "yes," then it sucks to be you. Of course, it shouldn't suck to be you, but this is what happens when government is too large and too powerful, and when it …
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: …
Continue reading "Seattle, Meet Brussels. You Two Will Get Along Just Fine."
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 …
Continue reading "Seattle’s City Council Fails Its Constituents"
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 …
Continue reading "Uber, Traditional Taxicabs and the Failure of Regulation"
Yes, this story is from France, which is hardly a bastion of free market economics, but that doesn't make the story any less outrageous or ridiculous: At first, it was just an idea, but this bill is now very real — urban transportation services like Uber and LeCab will now have to wait 15 minutes in …
I think that I and others can be trusted to make our own taxi choices without government interference and special interest rent-seeking. Don't you?
Pejman Yousefzadeh 