August 27, 2018
Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez becoming the poster girl for progressive hypocrisy and ignorance
By Thomas Lifson
A
https://www.americanthinker.com/blo..._for_progressive_hypocrisy_and_ignorance.html
For the moment, the Democrats continue to treat the glamour girl of the left, a
Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, as a serious candidate, heedless of the damage she is doing to the progressive cause. Her willingness to shoot off her mouth works fine when directed at an audience of leftists who will not question any of the progressive shibboleths. But in prime time, when challenged, she is forced to admit, "I am not an expert." Her abject economic illiteracy – for instance, her support of higher minimum wages – crashed headlong into the closing of the bar where she worked, caused by higher rents and high New York minimum wages.
The latest revelation involves the behavior of her campaign, and quite possibly of herself. Lukas Mikelionis reported at Fox News:
Here is the tweet in which she castigated Uber and, implicitly, those who buy cheaper rides from it than taxis are able to provide:
All of these extra costs require higher prices. That's fine for you and me, but for the Ocasio-Cortez campaign, saving money is more important than the welfare of taxi drivers, apparently.
There are far deeper ironies accompanying this tweet and her campaign's behavior. The proximate cause of the taxi-driver's suicide was not his low income, but his unsustainable debt incurred to purchase a taxi medallion, whose value has plummeted in the face of competition from Uber and other ride-sharing services.
Taxi medallions are a product of the regulatory impulse favored by the left. The original rationale was to "protect the public" – which is always the banner under which regulators demand power. But very quickly, the beneficiaries of the limitation on competition that licensing provided become a powerful vested interest. The artificial scarcity that licensing created made a medallion a valuable piece of "property" that the regulators bestowed upon favored recipients. The price of a New York City taxi medallion soared to over a million dollars, reportedly.
Forcing would-be taxi-operators to borrow a million dollars for the privilege of operating a cab was such a burden that it squeezed out the profit margin for many. Then, when Uber drove down business going to expensive cabs, the value of the medallions plummeted. Drivers responsible for debt and unable to sell the medallion to pay off their loans were caught in a vise. Had there never been an artificial limitation in the number of taxis, there would have been no problem.
The biggest irony of all is that one of the biggest victims of this medallion price decline is Michael Cohen, who reportedly invested heavily in medallions that he leased out to operators and then was caught in the same sort of debt problems that led to a taxi-driver's suicide.
The fact that none of this registers with Ocasio-Cortez is one more indicator of her inability to handle the responsibilities of political office.
But then again, this is a person who speaks Spanish, who advocates socialism, and who ignores the masses fleeing the disaster that socialism has inflicted in Venezuela, so she is utterly hopeless.
Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez becoming the poster girl for progressive hypocrisy and ignorance
By Thomas Lifson
A
https://www.americanthinker.com/blo..._for_progressive_hypocrisy_and_ignorance.html
For the moment, the Democrats continue to treat the glamour girl of the left, a
Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, as a serious candidate, heedless of the damage she is doing to the progressive cause. Her willingness to shoot off her mouth works fine when directed at an audience of leftists who will not question any of the progressive shibboleths. But in prime time, when challenged, she is forced to admit, "I am not an expert." Her abject economic illiteracy – for instance, her support of higher minimum wages – crashed headlong into the closing of the bar where she worked, caused by higher rents and high New York minimum wages.
The latest revelation involves the behavior of her campaign, and quite possibly of herself. Lukas Mikelionis reported at Fox News:
New York Socialist Democrat Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez once blamed ride-sharing giant Uber for leading a yellow cab driver to suicide. Her campaign then took $4,000 worth of Uber rides.
Here is the tweet in which she castigated Uber and, implicitly, those who buy cheaper rides from it than taxis are able to provide:
Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez
✔
@Ocasio2018
US House candidate, NY-14
NYC's fourth driver suicide. Yellow cab drivers are in financial ruin due to the unregulated expansion of Uber. What was a living wage job now pays under minimum.
We need:
- to call Uber drivers what they are: EMPLOYEES, not contractors
- Fed jobs guarantee
- Prep for automation
Noam Scheiber
@noamscheiber
A fourth NYC taxi driver facing financial oblivion takes his own life. This is getting truly horrific. Earlier story here: https://www.nytimes.com/2018/02/06/nyregion/livery-driver-taxi-uber.html …
All of these extra costs require higher prices. That's fine for you and me, but for the Ocasio-Cortez campaign, saving money is more important than the welfare of taxi drivers, apparently.
There are far deeper ironies accompanying this tweet and her campaign's behavior. The proximate cause of the taxi-driver's suicide was not his low income, but his unsustainable debt incurred to purchase a taxi medallion, whose value has plummeted in the face of competition from Uber and other ride-sharing services.
Taxi medallions are a product of the regulatory impulse favored by the left. The original rationale was to "protect the public" – which is always the banner under which regulators demand power. But very quickly, the beneficiaries of the limitation on competition that licensing provided become a powerful vested interest. The artificial scarcity that licensing created made a medallion a valuable piece of "property" that the regulators bestowed upon favored recipients. The price of a New York City taxi medallion soared to over a million dollars, reportedly.
Forcing would-be taxi-operators to borrow a million dollars for the privilege of operating a cab was such a burden that it squeezed out the profit margin for many. Then, when Uber drove down business going to expensive cabs, the value of the medallions plummeted. Drivers responsible for debt and unable to sell the medallion to pay off their loans were caught in a vise. Had there never been an artificial limitation in the number of taxis, there would have been no problem.
The biggest irony of all is that one of the biggest victims of this medallion price decline is Michael Cohen, who reportedly invested heavily in medallions that he leased out to operators and then was caught in the same sort of debt problems that led to a taxi-driver's suicide.
The fact that none of this registers with Ocasio-Cortez is one more indicator of her inability to handle the responsibilities of political office.
But then again, this is a person who speaks Spanish, who advocates socialism, and who ignores the masses fleeing the disaster that socialism has inflicted in Venezuela, so she is utterly hopeless.