About a month ago, the Locke Foundation hosted a speech by ABC journalist John Stossel, and that prompted me to start reading his book, Give Me a Break. Here’s an example of the great material. Stossel recounts how a few years ago in NYC, immigrants started a van service to compete with city buses. Customers loved it; it was cheaper and faster. True to form, politicians and unions hated it. The vans were declared illegal. Here’s the hilarious, but sad, transcript from Stossel’s interview with Willie James and Bill Pelletier, described as “heads of the union.” This appears on pages 39/40.
Stossel: Isn’t competition good?
James: Competition is fine if it’s done legally.
Stossel: But you make the competition illegal.
James: No. The law is the law.
Pelletier: You’re going to have to wait for the bus. That’s what the law says. Why are we going to let these entrepreneurs come onto the streets and take away from this service?
Stossel: Because the customer wants it.
Pelletier: Well, because a customer wants it, that doesn’t mean it’s right.