Monday March 17, 2008 at 21:11
If NYC did not regulate taxis, this half hour line would not exist. Long lines for everyday things is a good indicator of gov’t interference.
That’s not necessarily true. There is a line this long because NYC is one of the most populous cities in the world and there are many people in need of taxis. Not to mention there are a number of other factors that bottleneck traffic, including the size of roads, the congestion of traffic already on the roads limiting how many taxis can be on the roads, etc. etc.
This line is also further compounded by the fact limited mass transit, or people’s choice not to use mass transit.
And even if the size of this line were so long because of government regulation, lifting regulations does not necessarily solve problems. For example, if the government did not regulate fishing, and the demand outstripped the supply of fish to the point of the extinction of Cod for example (which nearly happenend before government regulation) then would it have been better to have no regulation?
Smith told us there should be no government regulation, this eventually lead to the Great Depression.
Keynes told us that the government should regulate everything, this lead to stagflation.
Hayek told us that government regulation is rarely necessary, but in general the market should have a free hand (I suppose this lead to the mortgage crisis?)
Sometimes lines are long because demand is higher than supply, and sometimes a cigar is only a cigar.
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