Airport cab drivers may have licenses suspended for refusing to carry fares

St. Paul Pioneer Press ^ | January 3, 2007 | TAD VEZNER

[savedbygrace]

That's what WAS happening, and the Muslims complained, so the Authority tried to negotiate with them and negotiations went nowhere. That's why they've reached this situation now.

The Muslim cabbies want to have their cake and eat it too.

[supercat]

Here is the market price for a taxi medallion in NYC:

I'm not a big fan of government-engineered scarcity, which is basically the purpose of NYC taxi licensure. Absent deliberately-engineered scarcity, many problems would disappear and controversial issues become moot.

[supercat]

I think that is already in place. It opens a can of worms: the Muslim drivers get their way, then redneck drivers can refuse to take blacks, etc.

Do you think there would really be a shortage of drivers willing to carry blacks, even if the only penalty imposed upon drivers who refused was to lose their turn in line?

I don't know much about the economics of airport cabs, but I suspect the cost to a cabbie who forfeited his turn in line would exceed the hassle imposed on the passenger who then had to wait an extra five seconds to take the next cab.

At the civil rights museum in Memphis, there's an exhibit that talks about how a city used minimum-fare rules to prevent black-operated cabs from undercutting the fares charged by white-operated ones. Interesting that people have lost sight of what minimum-price laws do.

I would suggest that free markets are far better than forced-association laws in combatting racism and discrimination. To be sure, sometimes higher levels of government need to act to protect markets that may be attacked by lower levels, and even when unfettered free markets won't end discrimination overnight, but they will tend asymptotically toward a playing field that's more fair and balanced than anything the government can produce by fiat.

[mewzilla]

Republicans pick the Twin Cities of Minneapolis-St. Paul for the 2008 presidential convention

Way to go, GOP.

[expatguy]

The Ham Sandwich From Hell

[Leftism is Mentally Deranged]

Good. And expel them from the USA too.

[Leftism is Mentally Deranged]

Something’s wrong with a mind that cheers 9/11, dreams about chopping Christian and Jewish heads, and won’t let a dog into a taxi or a passenger carrying alcohol.

[John D]

What would happen if a Christian cab driver refused to transport a pregnant woman to an abortion center?
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That would be a life threatening situation.