Showing posts with label lyft. Show all posts
Showing posts with label lyft. Show all posts

Wednesday, March 27, 2024

March, 2024, Part 6, Political Class Insanity: Second Amendment Sanity In Wyoming, Dying Homeless In Los Angeles, Economic Ignorance In Minnesota, and Unhappy Americans Everywhere

 Every month we devote posts to just general political class insanity that is running rampant through the country. The members of the American political class continue to show that they are incapable of operating any level of government in this country. 


Even their best efforts are almost always inefficient and ineffective at resolving any problem facing Americans. They spend a great amount of time not trying to improve the lives of their citizens but continually ensuring their reelection and enriching themselves, their families, and their friends in the process, all at taxpayer expense.


1)Liberals and Democrats in this country have long had a hatred for the Second Amendment and have tried all types of ways to restrict Americans’ ability to protect themselves using the Second Amendment for that purpose. But the politicians in Wyoming have finally realized that the liberal way of thinking, as it applies to so-called “gun free” zones, is more fatal than liberals think they are:


  • Simply stated, a gun free zone makes it illegal  to carry a gun within the confines of a gun free zone be it a school, a public venue, etc.

  • The faulty reasoning is that making it illegal to carry a gun inside these zones would make a criminal, or crazed gunman, stop and not carry out their intentions since it would be illegal.

  • But in  reality, if someone is crazy enough to want to shoot and kill people,,  a law is not going to stop them, they are criminals by definition the law does not inhibit them.

  • And in reality, a crazed gunman is more likely to seek  out gun free zones since they know that law abiding citizens will not want to break the law and  will be unarmed and defenseless.

  • In fact, research by the Crime Prevention Research Center shows that 82% of mass shootings between 1998 and 2023 occurred in gun free zones.

  • As a result, the  political class in Wyoming has finally come to its senses and will soon pass legislation that bans gun free zones with a few exceptions (hospitals, mental health clinics, jails).

It is a common sense and rational decision that will hopefully make potential mass shooters think twice before carrying out their evil plans since they are now more likely to themselves get killed by Wyoming citizens using their restored Second Amendment  rights in the state.


2)The American political class no longer cares about the good of the country for the most part, they are more concerned about their continued self enrichment by being in office and bashing their opponents,  never debating the issues and the need to fix what ails the country. They continue to divide the country along economic, racial, and political  affiliation lines in order to satisfy their greed and lust for power,


As a result they have Americans fighting among themselves while the real culprits are the politicians that make sure they keep us angry and divided. It is a brilliant move on their part, but makes sure that we never come together to resolve the major issues facing the country with  plans to  fix those issues.


The end result of their divisive rhetoric and actions result in the following sad reality in this country:


  • According to the  latest annual “World Happiness Report,” the United States fell down 8 spots and is now rated as the 23rd most happy country in the world, an all-time low.

  • People in  Finland are the happiest folks for the seventh year in a row.

  • This  is the  first time that the U.S.  was not in the  top 20 as far as happiness.

  • A lot of the unhappiness is driven by those under 30 years of age  in this country: “In the US, happiness or subjective wellbeing has decreased in all age groups, but especially for young adults,” Gallup managing director Ilana Ron Levey told CBS News in an emailed statement, adding that social connections are one key factor contributing to these generational disparities in happiness. “The World Happiness Report and the Gallup/Meta social connectedness data show peak loneliness for younger Americans. It’s widely recognized that social support and feelings of loneliness are influential factors in determining overall happiness, and these dynamics differ across various age groups.”

  • Afghanistan was the  most unhappy place  in the  world.

  • Even  Israel, a country constantly under attack and criticism ranked 5th happiest.


As politicians continue to harp on the  negatives and set citizen against citizen we will all probably continue to  be unhappy living in a country of hate and pettiness, a country that is severely divided by those that should be uniting us for common goals.


3)As politicians  across the  country at all levels of government continue to  lavish billions of dollars on illegal immigrants to take care of their food, shelter, and medical  needs, hundreds of thousands of American citizens have their needs unmet:


  • Over 2,000 homeless people, likely mostly American citizens, died in Los Angeles in 2023, a 300% increase from 2014.

  • According to  a report by the Guardian newspaper, “Bodies have been found in “tents, encampments, vehicles, parks, alleys, vacant lots, underpasses, bus stops and train stations.” 

  • The over 2,000 deaths in  2023 brings the grand total  of homeless deaths  in the past ten years to 11,572.

  • For various reasons, the Guardian report asserts that the 2,000 is probably an undercount.

  • The LA department of health  estimates that almost 60% of these homeless deaths were “accidental,” another word for drug overdose: “The data shows a dramatic increase in fentanyl-related deaths over time, with 30 cases listing the powerful opioid as the cause of death in 2018; 255 in 2020; and 633 in 2022,” the Guardian reported.


Yes, Americans are suffering from hunger, lack of shelter and  lack of medical attention including drug addiction treatment.  And yet, politicians continue to spend and waste our tax dollars on foreign aid, foreign wars, self enrichment and the gentle and generous caring of millions of illegal immigrants while American citizens continue to suffer.


4)Even to the causal  observer, it has to  be obvious that American  politicians have virtually no economic sense of understanding basic economic principles. Examples of their ignorance are far too numerous to go into today but consider just another example of their ignorance when it comes to pretty simple economic realities:


  • Rather than let  the  market drive customer preferences, the Minneapolis city council recently flexed their  economic ignorance and  ordered the ride sharing companies, Lyft and Uber, to increase their compensation  to their drivers via recent legislation.

  • That legislation ordered the companies to pay their drivers $1.40 per mile and $.51 per minute or at least $5.00 per trip.

  • Their intent was to try and get the average compensation of their drivers up to the city minimum wage of $15.57 an  hour, up from the average of $13,64 per hour.

  • As a result of this economic meddling, both companies have decided to  stop operating in the city because of the ignorance of the politicians and the dire economic onus the politicians imposed.

  • Lyft will shut down city operations on May 1st and Uber will do  the same at about the  same time  including stopping all airport runs.


Again, rather than let individuals and the market to set prices, the politicians inserted themselves into the process and as a result:


  • City citizens will  now have  two  fewer options to get around.

  • With fewer options, no Uber and  Lyft, there will be less  competition which  means cab companies can now increase their fares making it more expensive to  get around.

  • The Lyft and Uber drivers, who were perfectly content with the existing monetary arrangement,  now are out of jobs, i.e. “The good news is your pay went up,  the bad news is your job disappeared.”


So as a result of their economic ignorance, their citizens will pay more for transportation,  the unemployment rate will go up in the city,  and it will be  more inconvenient for city citizens to get around, strike one, strike two, strike three. What was a perfectly functioning economic arrangement between buyers and sellers got destroyed.


Council Member Jamal Osman perfectly summarized his economic ignorance when  he stated, "Drivers are human beings with families, and they deserve dignified minimum wages like all other workers." And now those drivers/human  beings/family breadwinners are soon  to  be unemployed despite Osman’s  lofty goals.

The  mayor of the city actually tried to prevent this economic disaster by initially vetoing the legislation,  showing at least some degree of understanding basic economics. But the city council overrode his veto to the dismay of many. Ignorance is bliss…and economically dangerous.

Enough insanity for today: economic ignorance in Minneapolis, homeless death rate  continues to rise, Americans are very unhappy,  and finally, a little bit of common sense relative to the Second Amendment in Wyoming.

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If you agree that we need to deseat every member of Congress for their lack of success and accomplishment, then please consider going to the following petition link to help the cause:


https://www.change.org/p/deseat-congress-reset-freedom



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Our book, "Love My Country, Loathe My Government - Fifty First Steps To Restoring Our Freedom And Destroying The American Political Class" is now available at:

Monday, August 24, 2020

How California Politicians Screwed Up a Perfectly Good Employment and Market Arrangement With Their Economic Ignorance

Just a short post today, one focused on a prime example of how politicians in this country have no economic common sense, education, or real life experience. Not surprisingly, this ignorance has recently come to the surface in the state of California. 

But this California political failure of common sense and inability to resolve any problem should not surprise anyone given the the many, many failures that the California political class has brought down on the residents of that state:
  • California has one of the highest, if not the highest, tax burden of any state in the union.
  • The state government’s financial situation is a mess with a huge budget gap and billions and billions of unfunded financial liabilities with no way to pay them.
  • The state and city politicians have decided it should not be against the law to defecate, urinate, or shoot up illegal drugs in public.
  • The state’s public education systems severely under educate most California kids.
  • The state’s homeless population is huge and growing everyday.
  • The state’s infrastructure is crumbling and the recent attempt to build a high speed rail line was a financial disaster.
  • The state’s illogical and wrong headed conservation laws and regulations result in frequent and deadly wildfires.
  • The state’s massive amount of silly laws, rules, and regulations on building homes and other structures has resulted in sky high housing prices in the state.
  • The state crime rate, especially in the state’s larger cities, is rising.
All of the above problems are causing a net migration loss of state residents, i.e. more are moving out than are moving in, a California reality that has not been present for lord knows how long.

Wow, not a fun place to be. High taxes, low or ineffective government services, crime, homelessness, etc. Much, if not all of this, has to do state politicians doing a horrible job of managing tax dollars, not operating an efficient government bureaucracy, and just passing stupid and counter productive laws and regulations.

Okay, put that dumpster fire aside for a minute. Let’s assume that a new company comes along with a bright new service idea that has the following benefits:
  • It creates a whole new industry with a lot of new good paying jobs.
  • These new jobs create wages that boost the economy and widen the tax base, something you would think politicians would like.
  • The people who decide to take these jobs have the flexibility of working whenever they want for as long or short as they want.
  • The people who take these jobs are basically their own boss who do not have to report to an office everyday or put up with a bad immediate boss looking over their shoulder.
  • Customers of this new industry get a brand new, more extensive, less expensive and possibly better experience using this new industry than the previous industry they had to rely on.
  • This new industry makes the roads and driving less dangerous, saving lives and reducing accidents.
  • This new industry has an extensive review process for both employees and customers so that you are aware of the type of service you are likely to experience before using this new industry.
Good jobs, good wages, work flexibility, wider tax base, safer roads, wow, what a great deal. Of course, we are talking about the ride sharing industry that Uber and Lyft created. Uber and Lyft act as a clearinghouse of matching up drivers with people that need a ride somewhere. 

People can decide to be an Uber driver, a Lyft driver or both. They work when they want for as long as they want. The pay is good and they are their own boss, always interacting with real people with real and often interesting stories to tell. 

This allows some people with other responsibilities to work in this new industry without the constraints and requirements of a typical job. Stay at home parents can work while their kids are in school. Retired folks can work and get some extra income into their retired lifestyles. College kids can work and schedule around their classes.

Customers who only had taxi service as their travel alternative, or had no travel option, now have other options which causes competition which drives down consumer transportation costs. People who have had too much to drink while out on the town can leave their cars parked and get an Uber or Lyft ride home, protecting their lives and the lives of other drivers.

Very flexible hours, good wages, interesting customer interactions, safer roads, no immediate bosses, providing a needed market service, the list of positives of this situation is quite long.

Then along comes the California political class. The state politicians decided that they would “help” out these drivers by forcing Uber and Lyft to treat the drivers not as independent contractors, which they are, but as full time employees. And as full time employees, provide the drivers with health insurance and other full time benefits.

Problem is that these folks for the most part don't want to be full time employees: they want to work on their own schedule and needs, not a full time schedule that is dictated to them. These drivers may not even need health insurance for example, they may already have it from another source or through their spouse. Plus, the cost and resultant prices of the service are built off a contractor model, not a full time employee model. 

But these massive downsides to this political class idea went unheeded and the state government passed law AB15 which required that Uber and Lyft drivers (and other independent contractors) be full time employees of any company who hired them. As a result, Uber and Lyft have made it very clear what is likely to happen if forced to live under this ridiculous law:
  • Until a recent court hearing gave them some breathing room, Uber and Lyft were hours away from ceasing operations in the state of California.
  • This would have and still might, force many, many Uber and Lyft drivers to be out of a job and remove a wonderful service from the market, a service that has proven itself to provide choice, reduce costs, generate jobs and economic growth.
  • Uber estimates that if it is forced to go to a full time employee model that 75% of its California drivers will lose their jobs.
  • Uber also told the court that if forced to change its business model, the millions of dollars needed to invest in the new business requirements would raise costs 120% for the consumers while reducing the number of consumers who would have access to an Uber ride.
  • A full time employee model for the companies will require that employees work 40 hours week which would make sure that stay at home parents, retirees, and college students looking for part time work would be forced out of a job and lose the contractor paycheck that they were happy with.
  • This will force both Uber and Lyft to change their business model and make significant investments to the new model being forced on them, resulting in additional costs that will be passed on to the consumers.
  • Some people will see a major drop off in service since there will be fewer drivers available at most times since xx% of drivers have been axed.
Great job California politicians. Take a new, vibrant market segment, one that satisfies both contract employee and customer needs, encourages economic growth, grows the tax base and muck it up because of your economic ignorance. 

And it is not just Uber and Lyft drivers that will get screwed in the end. The law applies to ALL independent contractors, e.g. artists, free lance writers, independent truck drivers, etc. If any company wants to hire any of these California folks for a short term job contract, the law requires them to become full time company employees. 

And it is pretty obvious what will happen: a publication looking for a story to be written will not hire a California writer, they will go to another writer in another state where the contract worker relationship still exists. An independent truck driver in California will likely lose out to truckers in other states since a trucking company may want short term contract workers, not full time workers. As a result, a large swath of California independent workers and contractors will suffer significant financial hits because of this economic ignorance.

The free market, when allowed to be free, is the greatest wealth and job creator in the world. The problem is that the ignorance and egos of politicians restrict that freedom and such behavior never results in better economic conditions for anyone. 

Just ask the soon to be laid off Uber and Lyft drivers and those customers that will find it harder to get a lift and those drunks that are now out driving on the streets if life was better now that the political class jumped into something they were obviously clueless about.

Our book, "Love My Country, Loathe My Government - Fifty First Steps To Restoring Our Freedom And Destroying The American Political Class" is now available at:




Monday, August 13, 2018

August, 2018, Part 4,Political Class Insanity: NYC Politicians Screwing Their Unberites and Lyfters, Chicago Police Still Ineffective, and Voter Fraud In Georgia.

It is another month which means it is again time to review the latest political class insanity from Washington and around the world. Political class insanity takes many forms including the wasting of taxpayer wealth, criminal fraud within government programs, inane and stupid political quotes and actions, the inability to create and implement effective and efficient government programs, stupid and ill performing economic policies and strategies, and other forms of insanity that continue to evolve and surprise and shock us.

Let’s get started:

1) One thing you never want to do is get in between politicians and those that fund their perpetual reelection campaign coffers. Unfortunately, Uber and Lyft did that in New York City and the results are not good, for both of these companies and the freedom of choice that New York politicians have now denied to their constituents in favor of their financial backers:
  • The NYC council recently overwhelmingly voted to limit the number of ride sharing consumer options via Uber, Lyft and others within city limits.
  • The limitations were covered in multiple bills that the mayor is expected to sign.
  • According to the news source, The Verge: "The council voted to halt the issuance of new for-hire vehicle licenses for 12 months while it studies the booming industry. Under the cap, Uber and Lyft could still be granted licenses for wheelchair-accessible vehicles — which both companies sorely lack — but would be prevented from adding new ride-hail vehicles for one year. The city’s Taxi and Limousine Commission could also issue licenses in particular neighborhoods that are running low on ride-hail vehicles. Another bill that passed would establish a $15 living wage for drivers. The bills now go to the desk of Mayor Bill de Blasio, who has indicated his support for a cap." 
  • In a totally inane statement, the mayor, Bill DeBlasio, tried to convince the world that Uber and Lyft type services were horrifically bad for the city and its residents: "Our city is directly confronting a crisis that is driving working New Yorkers into poverty and our streets into gridlock. The unchecked growth of app-based for-hire vehicle companies has demanded action -— and now we have it."
  • It is an inane statement because the mayor and council placed no restrictions on taxi drivers, likely because taxi drivers help fund their reelection campaigns, if an Uber driver is bad for the city than an equivalent taxi driver must also be bad for the city.
  • Since there are no apparent plans to expand and improve bus, subway and train service to help residents get around town easily then those same residents will face rising transportation costs and longer delays in getting transportation.
  • This was explained by both Uber and Lyft spokespeople: “The city’s 12-month pause on new vehicle licenses will threaten one of the few reliable transportation options while doing nothing to fix the subways or ease congestion,” said Danielle Filson, a spokeswoman for Uber. “Uber will do whatever it takes to keep up with growing demand.”
  • “These sweeping cuts to transportation will bring New Yorkers back to an era of struggling to get a ride, particularly for communities of color and in the outer boroughs," said Joseph Okpaku, vice president of public policy for Lyft. "We will never stop working to ensure New Yorkers have access to reliable and affordable transportation in every borough."
  • These are the same shenanigans that the Mayor and his cohorts pulled with Airbnb, another new economy service that made life easier, better and cheaper for ordinary citizens. But since this new marketing offering upset the established political donors of current politicians, they had to be tackled and hamstrung because of typical gutter politics. 
  • Details on this political heist can be seen at:
https://loathemygovernment.blogspot.com/2018/07/july-2018-part-6-political-class.html

As always, politicians take care of themselves first, their financial benefactors second, and somewhere down the line they might help the people they are supposed to be representing.

2) In our last post we talked about how the Chicago political class continues to have no clue how to stop the gang violence and deaths that go on day to day in their city. A few weekends ago over 70 people were shot and eleven died as a result of the gang and gun violence in a single weekend period. This carnage has been going on for years and nothing the local politicians do, or do not do, has worked.

How bad are law enforcement results in the city? According to the Chicago Sun Times:
  • The Chicago Police Department “has solved far fewer murders over the last several years compared to most other major departments around the country.” 
  • In the year 2016, the department was only able to make arrests or at least identify a suspect in only 26% of the cases it actually investigated.
  • Since there were almost 800 homicides in the city that year, the police in Chicago basically had no idea who did the murder in about 600 of those incidents.
  • And while the good news is that that there were “only” 650 murders in 2017, the police made an arrest or at least identified a potential suspect in only 17.5% of those cases, meaning that the police had no idea what happened in over 500 city murders last year.
Oh, by the way, Chicago is a so-called “sanctuary city.”

3) Many of my liberal friends and relatives constantly claim that there is no voter fraud going on in this country, that everything is just fine when it comes to voting integrity. We have constantly disproven that fact in previous posts. For example, back in 2017 we went through this litany of voter fraud incidents:


You can get access to many other discussions on rampant voter fraud by just typing in “voter fraud” in the search box above.

And nothing has changed since those posts if you are to believe a recent incident that the McClatchy News Service and the Gateway Pundit website reported on:
  • In the lead up to primary elections in Georgia’s Habersham County’s Mud Creek voting district there were 276 registered voters.
  • But after the votes were counted in the primary, the Georgia Secretary of State found that 670 ballots were cast in the district, more than double the total number of registered voters.
  • An investigation is underway.
Either there is a massive misunderstanding of what happened on election day in the Mud Creek district or they have the worst voter fraudsters going, fraudsters that are very bad at math. If you want to steal an election make sure you do not have more votes cast than you have voters. No voter fraud? I do not think so.

That will do it for today’s insanity: voter fraud in Georgia, incompetence continues in Chicago, and screwing residents in NYC. More insanity to follow.


Our book, "Love My Country, Loathe My Government - Fifty First Steps To Restoring Our Freedom And Destroying The American Political Class" is now available at:


www.loathemygovernment.com

It is also available online at Amazon and Barnes and Noble. Please pass our message of freedom onward. Let your friends and family know about our websites and blogs, ask your library to carry the book, and respect freedom for both yourselves and others everyday.

Please visit the following sites for freedom:


http://www.reason.com
http://www.cato.org
http://www.bankruptingamerica.org

http://www.conventionofstates.com
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=08j0sYUOb5w