Oddbean

An easy way to explain the failure of government. For decades the government tried stop "drinking and driving". This included billions of tax payer funded stupid ads no one listened to. Along with destroying the lives of many who were NOT IMPAIRED at all at their time of arrest. And after all this drinking and driving along with accidents caused by drunk drivers was never really reduced. Any reduction happened in the 80s when the laws were first put in place from that point on, it was pretty much the same for 30+ years. Then in 2009 Uber was founded soon followed by Lyft. It was so effective that some police departments (mostly unions) said it was causing a lack of "revenue" because they wrote so few DWI tickets. Governments from federal to local fought it all the way. The average DWI will cost a person 10-20K minimum even if found not guilty. Most of this was grift that went to the state one way or another. California's government attempted to put all ride share drivers out of business with laws against independent contractors. This led drivers to form corporations and LLCs just to stay in business. Las Vegas literally pulled some of the first uber drivers over at gun point and were pushed to do so by the cab lobby and the mafia that runs the Vegas cab business. The city of Austin tried to outlaw Uber/Lyft as well, again spurred on by Austin PD and police unions. These are just a few examples. Despite all this ride services survived and thrived and have done more to reduce DWIs and accidents caused due to them than 4 decades of state endorsed warfare on our own citizens and billions of dollars in PR campaigns paid for with stolen money. The solution is Always in the free market. The impediment to these solutions is ALWAYS government. #grownostr