Post-Dispatch Hails the Right Ideas on Taxis

State and Local Government |
By David Stokes | Read Time 1 minute

I have found myself agreeing with a number of Post-Dispatch editorials recently, but none more so than today’s excellent piece on taxis in St. Louis. I really don’t have anything to add, other than to recommend you review our previous posts on this topic. There is sort-of a Nixon-going-to-China element to reading these words in the Post (emphasis added):

Whatever happened to free enterprise? Pressure from competitors drives a business to improve efficiency and customer service. There’s no reason to limit the number of cabs, as long as standards are enforced. The poor operators will go out of business on their own — assuming the political cord is cut.

Regulatory bodies suffer from a tendency to protect the businesses they regulate, sometimes at the public’s expense.

Wow. That is terrific stuff. As George Schultz is supposed to have said to Daniel Moynihan after they debated the effects of the busting of the real French Connection, "There is hope for you yet."

About the Author

David Stokes is a St. Louis native and a graduate of Saint Louis University High School and Fairfield (Conn.) University. He spent six years as a political aide at the St. Louis County Council before joining the Show-Me Institute in 2007. Stokes was a policy analyst at the Show-Me Institute from 2007 to 2016. From 2016 through 2020 he was Executive Director of Great Rivers Habitat Alliance, where he led efforts to oppose harmful floodplain developments done with abusive tax subsidies. Stokes rejoined the Institute in early 2021 as the Director of Municipal Policy. He is a past president of the University City Library Board. He served on the St. Louis County 2010 Council Redistricting Commission and was the 2012 representative to the Electoral College from Missouri’s First Congressional District. He lives in University City with his wife and their three children.

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