Here’s a letter to the Seattle Times:
Mike O’Brien and Rich Stolz – upset that new suppliers of taxi services are operating in Seattle without government’s blessing – assert that “multimillion-dollar corporations unleashed their services without seeking permission” (“Looking out for immigrant drivers in new taxi, Uber, Lyft laws,” Feb. 13).
Messrs. O’Brien and Stolz are mistaken. While these new taxi suppliers might not have sought permission from government, they most certainly did seek permission from the people who matter: consumers.
And not only did suppliers of these new taxi services seek such permission from the people, their success proves that they also got that permission – permission that, because it is given by people who actually use these services and pay for them with their own money, is far more real and relevant than is any ‘permission’ bestowed by politicians and bureaucrats.
Sincerely,
Donald J. Boudreaux
Professor of Economics
and
Martha and Nelson Getchell Chair for the Study of Free Market Capitalism at the Mercatus Center
George Mason University
Fairfax, VA 22030
I thank Todd Myers for the pointer to the op-ed by O’Brien and Stolz.
