What do New York and Minneapolis have in common? I mean, besides being big American cities whose denizens tend to talk a bit funny.
The answer? Taxicab troubles.
A few months ago, some New York cabbies went on strike . . . not against their employers, but against the city. The city has insisted on micromanaging their businesses, forcing cab companies to install expensive and costly electronic devices.
In New York, the city government is so “pro” consumer that it decides not only what taxi businesses may charge for their services, but what, precisely, must be offered. The one thing the city government can’t stand is consumer and producer options. Or competition.
This really upsets many cab drivers, as well as a few cab companies. Last I heard, there was talk of another strike. The city government, headed by this guy named Bloomberg, remains resolute, however. The cabbies will remain under his thumb.
Meanwhile, the city of Minneapolis went the other direction, towards deregulating taxis. The number of allowed cabs will increase, and in a few years all caps will be removed. Yes, Minneapolis is trying that always radical, always common-sense idea, the free market.
So of course the taxicab cartel sued.
In New York, cab drivers are upset about too much government. In Minneapolis, the previously cartelized cab companies are upset about too little.
A lot of small-business cab drivers are on the city’s side, however. Yes, they are all for deregulation. With a freer market, they finally get the chance to work as cabbies in the previously heavily regulated Minnesota city.
Into the fray came the Institute for Justice, a national group of lawyers defending individual rights. These lawyers have a simple approach: they defend the freedom of contract, private property rights, that kind of thing. In their ads they call themselves “IJ.” And they aim to bring back the U.S. Constitution one case at a time.
The group is based not far from where I live, in Virginia, but I was surprised to learn that IJ has a Minnesota chapter. And I was not surprised — I was pleased — to learn that the chapter has taken up the Minnesota case, the freedom of individuals to go into the taxi biz.