George Will has a good post that reveals some surprising facts. Do you know how much it costs to get a permit to drive a cab in New York City? $500,000.00! Of course, people with that kind of money do not drive cabs; they lease the permit to cabbies at exhorbitant rates. One such cabbie came to America from Equador. After trying to survive driving a cab in New York City, he decided to move to Minneapolis, where the permit fee is "only" $25,000.00! Both New York and Minneapolis, being liberal strongholds, set a cap many years ago on just how many permits each city could allow. New York's was set in 1937, while Minneapolis had set their cap in the 1940s, when Hubert Humphrey was mayor.
The immigrant from Equador, named Luis Paucar, decided to challenge his adopted country, through a lawsuit, to honor its principles of economic liberty and limited government. His actions persuaded the Minneaplis City council to allow 45 new cabs a year until 2010, at which point the cap will disappear. However, the story is not over. The cab companies who have been enjoying the fruits of the exclusive permits are suing in federal court, saying that their constitutional rights have been violated.
Will ends his piece with this statement: Some immigrants, with their acute understanding of why America beckons, refresh our national vigor. It would be wonderful if every time someone like Paucar comes to America, a native-born American rent-seeker who has been corrupted by today's entitlement mentality would leave.
Read the whole column here.
2 comments:
George Will is a sensible man.
Good eye Bob.
Walter Williams, the economist, wrote about growing up in Harlem and how his father had a used car to use as a cab. He put his children through college through hard work and frugality.
Today, he couldn't do that.
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