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TL;DR of the parable. Incumbent businesses will lobby and use professionalism as an excuse against individuals using their own resources to do ad-hoc business.

by aleyan 11y ago

TL;DR of the parable. Incumbent businesses will lobby and use professionalism as an excuse against individuals using their own resources to do ad-hoc business. Article makes an argument that this is bad. I found this article as print out on the floor of a bathroom on an equities trading floor of Goldman Sachs circa 2010. It intrigued me and since then I have shared it with my friends and family, who seemed to have enjoyed it. I post it now because it reminds me of the arguments surrounding new car hailing services and on demand short term housing rentals. Our problems aren't entirely new, so why not leverage some wisdom of decades past when reasoning about them?

jakewalker 11y ago
Thanks very much for sharing. Do you know more about its source?
- dmckeon 11y ago
  Not OP, but for more, see: http://truthonthemarket.com/2009/12/29/the-collected-works-of-henry-g-manne/ http://truthonthemarket.com/2009/12/29/the-collected-works-o... As a thought experiment, in an environment where for-profit entities will tend to try to increase their profits, consider: in what cases is it appropriate for governments to interfere with economic activities? To protect individuals, or _caveat emptor_? To protect businesses, or "free market"?
stegosaurus 11y ago
Interesting to see that this is a thing people have talked about before. I've thought of this as being obvious for a long time and brought it up often. Personally I've found a sort of class divide in how people respond to the arguments. Working class people can generally easily see how the regulations work against them. Take taxis as the example of the day. Even now, in non-Uber cities, it makes sense for someone with a bit of free time to go ad hoc taxi driver. Glue a taxi sign to your roof and drive about. Except this is illegal, for reasons that are completely irrelevant to you personally. The middle classes wouldn't be the driver because they don't need to and probably don't have the time anyway. Generally they ignore possible cost savings and think about the tiny chance of meeting a serial killer or whatever. Loads more things really. Rich countries control commerce to an incredible extent - the free market is a complete and utter fantasy. Something as banal as baking cakes and selling them to passers by is illegal, presumably because way back when big businesses were cutting their flour and sugar with chalk. In a vague sense, almost every low barrier to entry market has been made illegal. No street sales is really quite odd.

by aleyan 11y ago

jakewalker 11y ago

Thanks very much for sharing. Do you know more about its source?

dmckeon 11y ago
Not OP, but for more, see: http://truthonthemarket.com/2009/12/29/the-collected-works-of-henry-g-manne/ http://truthonthemarket.com/2009/12/29/the-collected-works-o... As a thought experiment, in an environment where for-profit entities will tend to try to increase their profits, consider: in what cases is it appropriate for governments to interfere with economic activities? To protect individuals, or _caveat emptor_? To protect businesses, or "free market"?

stegosaurus 11y ago

Interesting to see that this is a thing people have talked about before. I've thought of this as being obvious for a long time and brought it up often. Personally I've found a sort of class divide in how people respond to the arguments. Working class people can generally easily see how the regulations work against them. Take taxis as the example of the day. Even now, in non-Uber cities, it makes sense for someone with a bit of free time to go ad hoc taxi driver. Glue a taxi sign to your roof and drive about. Except this is illegal, for reasons that are completely irrelevant to you personally. The middle classes wouldn't be the driver because they don't need to and probably don't have the time anyway. Generally they ignore possible cost savings and think about the tiny chance of meeting a serial killer or whatever. Loads more things really. Rich countries control commerce to an incredible extent - the free market is a complete and utter fantasy. Something as banal as baking cakes and selling them to passers by is illegal, presumably because way back when big businesses were cutting their flour and sugar with chalk. In a vague sense, almost every low barrier to entry market has been made illegal. No street sales is really quite odd.