Taxicab Ordinance: A Door to Over-Regulation
We live in a free country, with a free economy that values voluntary exchange between willing parties. Following this idea, businesses are able to operate mostly as they wish; they are free to provide the product or service that they wish to, at the price they choose. Also following this idea is the fact that individuals are free to purchase that product or service – or not. The concept of voluntary exchange, and the extraordinary importance with which it has been treated in the United States, is no accident. A free economy depends upon the idea that people shall be free – not sort of, relatively, kind of – to enter into voluntary agreements with willing others. Think for a moment what sort of country we would be if people could not choose which products or services they purchased, but that it were determined by some governmental entity which placed little value on the rational thinking of the individual and great significance upon the vague idea of the collective good. Should any of us want to live in such a country?
Yet in today’s United States, the value of free voluntary exchange is in doubt, as regulations are constantly passed to instruct the masses in how they should make their choices. For example, New York City has banned trans fats in fast food. This presumes that people cannot ask, or cannot make their own determinations as to what they are ingesting. Do not worry, ignorant average person! If you are unsure that a hamburger is less healthy than a spinach salad, the wise authorities of New York are here to guide you. Give me a break.
