A left-wing Toronto city councillor is working hard to protect you from yourself:
Well, that’s what Uber is. Uber is a recruitment agency! That’s really their function, that’s really their job. That’s at the core of who they are.
You know what the lifespan of an Uber driver I’m told is? Three months! That’s not a job. Three months! So you sign on, you get a little free gas, you fill out an application and you start trolling the city.
Horrible. No government permits. No bureaucrats second guessing the judgment of private citizens. It's almost as if Uber presumes its clients and drivers are adults capable of making adult decisions. Anthony Perruzza - the aforementioned left-wing councillor - has mercifully appeared to prevent unrestrained capitalism from destroying Toronto as we know it.
The instinctive reaction of most conservatives toward Uber is a simple one: Who's business is it anyway? Whether the average career of an Uber driver is three months or three years, why is it a problem that needs Councillor Perruzza's vigilant busy bodying? If there's no harm then where's the foul?
It's here that the good councillor lets us into his thought processes, giving us a glimpse into the mind of a modern Canadian leftist:
There’s shift drivers, there’s agents, there’s brokers, there’s license-plate owners and people who own cars, it’s not level, there’s ambassador plates there’s regular plates, there is no such thing as a level playing field. But at least what we have is folks who at the end of the day at least earn a living for themselves and for their families.
And there you have it. Councillor Perruza's concern isn't with consumers who willingly plunk for an Uber driver. It's with the suppliers of a particular service. This must be one of those very rare moments in history when a leftist has expressed concern for the profits of a private business. Perhaps next the councillor will weep crocodile tears if RBC misses its third quarter numbers.
Both Uber drivers and cab drivers do the same work, the difference is that the former lives by the vagaries of the market and the latter by the grace of the municipal government. An Uber driver is directly accountable to his customers. A cab driver has to worry about his customers only up to a point. Beyond that he is beholden to the issuer of the licenses that allow him to make a living.
If you're a leftist politician a highly regulated market place gives you a great deal of power. A free market leaves you on the sidelines yelling at the passing crowd. Return to the councillor's own words: " But at least what we have is folks who at the end of the day at least earn a living for themselves and for their families." And who ultimately decides what cab drivers earn? The council on which Anthony Perruzza sits.
The suckers here aren't the Uber drives, it's the voters who keep electing power grabbing politicians.
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