A sub headline in today’s National Post says: “Montréal cabbies declare open season on the ride-sharing service.” Of course they’re talking about UBER, the app driven ridesharing service which is proving more than a little disruptive to the taxi industry.
How it works is that you download the UBER app, and then just use your smart phone to call for a ride to the airport, or wherever. UBER drivers use their own cars and don’t bother to get a permit to drive them, so they can drive for less.
And a lot of the UBER drivers just drive part time, so they can pick a busy Friday or Saturday night, or during some sort of festival to get out and make a few extra bucks. It’s good for them, and it’s good for the taxi-using public.
So why are the drivers so angry? Well that permit that they require costs them well over $100,000. In fact in some Canadian cities it’s now approaching $200,000, and I’ve read that in New York it’s nearly $1 million.
So in addition to paying $50-$60,000 for their cars, licensed taxi drivers in Canada have to pay two or three times as much just to get the license to drive those cars. Why?
Simply because, city governments can get away with this racket to raise more money from companies or individuals that, by themselves, don’t have the muscle to fight back.
Here’s the definition of the word racket. “A racket is a service that is fraudulently offered to solve a problem.”
What problem does a six-figure taxi permit solve that a simple car safety check; driver’s test; and criminal background test for about 1000 bucks wouldn’t solve? Not one thing.
In fact, it creates more problems because you have know-it-all bureaucrats at City Hall pretending to know how many taxis a city needs when there is ample proof that they don’t. Heck, even common sense tells you they don’t.
This is SUPPLY MANAGEMENT, but it has nothing to do with management and everything to do with a government cash grab.
Our dairy and poultry industries run under exactly the same kind of racket run by provincial and the federal governments. Did you know that a farmer who wants to go into the dairy business must fork out over $30,000 per cow just to get a permit to milk that cow?
A small, one hundred cow dairy, costs over $3 million just to get the permits to milk the cows. Then you have to buy the cows, machinery, feed, have access to land etc., before you extract one litre of milk that you can legally sell.
I’ve always referred to the dairy and poultry supply management rackets as a case of industry robbing Canadian families while government holds the gun. Except the government has the gun on both families and farmers and taxi drivers.
So Montréal cabbies have a right to be angry, but they are angry at the wrong people. Their plight is not the fault of UBER and its drivers. It’s the politicians and bureaucrats that deserve the opprobrium.
And frankly, you and me for putting up with this racket.
Donald Trump is no conservative and never has been. In addition to his myriad other non-conservative views and actions in the past, Trump has flat out said: “I love EMINENT DOMAIN!”
Now, the legal definition of eminent domain is a (government’s) power to take private property for public use by a state, municipality, or private person or corporation authorized to exercise functions of publiccharacter.
Expropriation of land through the application of eminent domain has always been understood to apply to major projects such as railways, major roads, public facilities etc. that will benefit a wide spectrum of the public.
But Trump loves eminent domain because he can use it to force private individuals to sell him property on which to develop his casinos and golf courses. In other words, Donald Trump loves that the government will help him run over fellow citizen’s property rights so he can expand his entertainment empire.
Trump Casino
That is the very antithesis of conservatism. NO TRUE CONSERVATIVE CAN SUPPORT THIS.
Another hallmark of common-sense conservatism is being practical, and realistic. Trump’s stated goal, to round up 11 million illegal immigrants and their American-born children is pure fantasy. Logistically, legally, and practically, it cannot be done.
Sure, they’re illegals, but don’t give me the crap that simply because they entered the United States illegally, they are therefore, serious lawbreakers. Anybody out there ever slow down in an area where you know that photo radar is common, and then exceed the speed limit in areas where you’ve never see a cop? Laws that are unenforced are obviously not very important, and people act accordingly.
National borders should be secured, and American administrations and congresses to date have completely failed to do their job. If securing the US borders is important, then vote for politicians that believe it’s important, but that also have a practical solution.
And once the borders are secure, there must be a way for hard-working, law-abiding, immigrants to achieve legal status, maybe by five years of law-abiding, and hard work.
And finally, send a message to the small percentage who do commit serious crimes, (and to dopey municipal governments like San Francisco’s), by imprisoning them, and then, without fail, shipping them back to their country of origin with the guarantee of a massive prison sentence if they return.
That’s probably only a few hundred thousand people, and deporting that many may actually be doable. In fact, many might even self deport if the penalties for illegals breaking the law are stiff enough.
Donald Trump is a windbag, albeit one who has performed a valuable service for America by putting serious issues on the table, however clumsy, obnoxious, and completely unrealistic his solutions are.
But this November’s election is critical, and it’s time for The Donald to fade from the political landscape, and for Americans to focus, not just on issues, but on realistic solutions to those issues.
Trump’s “Unfavorable” ratings in national polls suggest that in the general election, he would lose. But the alternative being Clinton or Sanders, Republicans would be forced to get out and vote Trump, to at least try and stop an ever more damaging experiment with “Progressivism”.
True conservatives will never put themselves in that position.
Anyway, that’s the view from across the Northern Fence.
A sub headline in today’s National Post says: “Montréal cabbies declare open season on the ride-sharing service.” Of course they’re talking about UBER, the app driven ridesharing service which is proving more than a little disruptive to the taxi industry.
What problem does a six-figure taxi permit solve that a simple car safety check; driver’s test; and criminal background test for about 1000 bucks wouldn’t solve? Not one thing.
But this November’s election is critical, and it’s time for The Donald to fade from the political landscape, and for Americans to focus, not just on issues, but on realistic solutions to those issues.