{"id":862,"date":"2007-05-30T04:24:59","date_gmt":"2007-05-30T10:24:59","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php\/index.php\/2007\/05\/30\/will-on-taxis\/"},"modified":"2007-06-26T08:43:42","modified_gmt":"2007-06-26T14:43:42","slug":"will-on-taxis","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/?p=862","title":{"rendered":"Addicted To Favor"},"content":{"rendered":"

George F Will on the other Minneapolis tax<\/a>i controversy – the one that doesn’t involve Somali Moslems and alcohol:<\/p>\n

The campaign to deny Luis Paucar his right to economic liberty illustrates the ingenuity people will invest in concocting perverse arguments for novel entitlements. This city’s taxi cartel is offering an audacious new rationalization for corporate welfare, asserting a right — a constitutional <\/em>right <\/em>— to revenues it would have received if the City Council had not ended the cartel that never should have existed.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

That’s right –\u00a0owners of Minneapolis cab licenses, who’ve\u00a0benefitted immensely from government regulations artificially driving down the supply of cabs in Minneapolis, are sueing on Fifth Amendment grounds to protect a “right” to income that exists only because of government intervention!<\/p>\n

Will tells the story of Mr.\u00a0Paucar…:\u00a0<\/p>\n

Paucar, 37, embodies the best qualities of American immigrants. He is a self-sufficient entrepreneur. And he is wielding American principles against some Americans who, in their decadent addiction to government assistance, are trying to litigate themselves to prosperity at the expense of Paucar and the public.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

…who came to the Twin Cities from NYC to try to make his fortune as a cab entrepreneur.<\/p>\n

Where he ran\u00a0into\u00a0“Minnesota Nice”, in the form of a\u00a0government-induced scarcity; Minnesotans are apparently happy to pay\u00a0extra for\u00a0an artificial\u00a0scarcity of taxis.\u00a0<\/p>\n

By the time Paucar got here in 1999, 343 taxis were permitted. He wanted to launch a fleet of 15. That would have required him to find 15 license-holders willing to sell for up to $25,000 apiece…[the scarcity of taxis in Minneapolis]– and Paucar’s determination and, eventually, litigiousness; he is a real<\/em> American — helped persuade the City Council members, liberals all (12 members of the Democratic Farmer-Labor Party, one member of the Green Party), to vote to allow 45 new cabs per year until 2010, at which point the cap will disappear.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Minneapolis’\u00a0licensees are addicted to the easy life of the regulatory beneficiary:\u00a0<\/p>\n

In response, the cartel is asking a federal court to say the cartel’s constitutional rights have been violated. It says the cap constituted an entitlement to profits that now are being “taken” by government action.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The danger?\u00a0 Beyond the stupidity of regulating something like the maximum number of cabs in the first place, I mean?\u00a0<\/p>\n

If the licensees win, the precedent will be set; no government regulation that confers a financial benefit can ever <\/em>be undone, because it’ll be a “taking”.<\/p>\n

Will gives well-placed kudos to Mr. Paucar…<\/p>\n

By challenging his adopted country to honor its principles of economic liberty and limited government, Paucar, assisted by the local chapter of the libertarian Institute for Justice, is giving a timely demonstration of this fact: Some immigrants, with their acute understanding of why America beckons, refresh our national vigor.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

…but betrays provincial ignorance of Minneapolis:\u00a0<\/p>\n

It would be wonderful if every time someone like Paucar came to America, a native-born rent-seeker who has been corrupted by the entitlement mentality would leave.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

A good part of Minneapolis would be depopulated.<\/p>\n

Hmmm.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

George F Will on the other Minneapolis taxi controversy – the one that doesn’t involve Somali Moslems and alcohol: The campaign to deny Luis Paucar his right to economic liberty illustrates the ingenuity people will invest in concocting perverse arguments for novel entitlements. This city’s taxi cartel is offering an audacious new rationalization for corporate […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[16,17,35],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-862","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-conservatism","category-minneapolis","category-money"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/862","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=862"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/862\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=862"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=862"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=862"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}