LET'S FIGHT BACK

LET'S FIGHT BACK
GOD BLESS AMERICA

Monday, August 30, 2021

Cars-for-Hire, Economic Freedom, and Prosperity


the AZEL

PERSPECTIVE

Commentary on Cuba's Future, U.S. Foreign Policy & Individual Freedoms - Issue 65A
 
This Azel Perspective was first published 2017.

Cars-for-Hire, Economic Freedom, and Prosperity

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The good news is that economic freedom is advancing worldwide. That is the finding of The Heritage Foundation’s 2014 Index of Economic Freedom, which covers 186 countries encompassing 99 percent of the world’s population. In measuring economic freedom, the Index analyzes countries’ commitment to the rule of law, principles of limited government, regulatory efficiency, and open markets. Hong Kong and Singapore lead the rankings as the world’s freest economies and Cuba and North Korea close the ranks as the most repressed economies.
The bad news is that the United States is on an opposite path as the only country which has registered a decline in economic freedom for seven consecutive years.

A microcosmic example of the regulatory environment that overawes our entrepreneurial spirit is playing out in our community, and elsewhere, in the form of roadblocks and actual persecution of ride-sharing modernizers Lyft and UberX. These are ride-sharing visionary companies that match passengers with drivers using technology in an innovative win-win fashion. The car-for-hire industry is not happy with these new competitors that confront their oligopolistic practices.

What we have yet to learn, and our political class ignores, is that economic success is not our natural birthright. Economic liberty must be defended because prosperity cannot survive without economic freedom and the innovations that it ushers. When was the last time you rented a movie from Blockbuster or bought film from Kodak?

The last two years of the Bush presidency and the first two years of Obama’s presidency marked the largest expansion of state power in the U.S. since the 1930’s. As a result, the United States continues to lose ground in economic freedom. Since 2007, the United States has tumbled from one of the top 10 freest economies to 12th place. According to the Index’s rankings, the United States is no longer considered a “free” economy, but only “mostly free.”  The United States has now earned the dubious distinction of being second only to Argentina in recording the longest sustained decline in economic freedom in the twenty year history of the index.

There is a clear positive relationship between economic freedom and the level of prosperity in a given country. As documented by the Index, countries with greater economic freedoms reach higher incomes and better standards of life, whereas governments that take over their countries’ economies impoverish the citizenry.  And yet, the economic and regulatory policy direction of the United States is fast-tracking the loss of our economic freedoms with a substantial growth in the size and scope of government.  Moreover, cronyism and corruption- classic byproducts of the expansive use of government to manage economic activity- are further eroding economic freedom.

The material prosperity case for economic freedom is clear cut. The data show that the free-market system has fueled unprecedented economic growth around the world. Over the past two decades, as the global economy has moved toward greater economic freedom, hundreds of millions of people have been raised out of poverty. In our microcosmic example, upstarts Lyft and UberX offer, not only higher value for consumers, but also a source of income for the drivers.

The moral case for economic freedom is equally clear cut, albeit less obvious thus allowing for a specious case to be made for government controls. The powerful taxi interests, claiming they are defending public safety, are trying to make such a paralogical case against competitors Lyft and UberX along the lines of unfair competition. That proposition is close to an oxymoron.

In an essay accompanying the 2014 Index of Economic Freedom, Professor John Tomasi of Brown University seeks to make the ethical case for economic freedom as the most moral of societal arrangements and a societal good in its own right. By protecting economic freedom, he argues, we respect others as our moral equals and we assert that governments must respect citizens as responsible authors of their own lives.  “Diminishing personal agency in economic affairs –no matter how lofty the social goal- may drain vital blood from a person’s life.” 

Speaking for this author’s personal life; I must go now, as my Uber app just notified me that my UberX driver is here to pick me up.

Please let us know if you Like Issue 65A - Cars-for-Hire, Economic Freedom, and Prosperity on Facebook this article.
This article was originally published in English in the Miami Herald and in Spanish in El Nuevo Herald.
 
José Azel, Ph.D.
José Azel left Cuba in 1961 as a 13 year-old political exile in what has been dubbed Operation Pedro Pan - the largest unaccompanied child refugee movement in the history of the Western Hemisphere.  

He is currently dedicated to the in-depth analyses of Cuba's economic, social and political state, with a keen interest in post-Castro-Cuba strategies. Dr. Azel was a Senior Scholar at the Institute for Cuban and Cuban-American Studies (ICCAS) at the University of Miami and has published extensively on Cuba related topics.

In 2012 and 2015, Dr. Azel testified in the U.S. Congress on U.S.-Cuba Policy, and U.S. National Security.  He is a frequent speaker and commentator on these and related topics on local, national and international media.  He holds undergraduate and masters degrees in business administration and a Ph.D. in International Affairs from the University of Miami. 

Dr. Azel is author of Mañana in Cuba: The Legacy of Castroism and Transitional Challenges for Cuba, published in March 2010 and of Pedazos y Vacios, a collection of poems he wrote as a young exile in the 1960's.

José along with his wife Lily are avid skiers and adventure travelers.  In recent years they have climbed Grand Teton in Wyoming, trekked Mt. Kilimanjaro in Tanzania and Machu Pichu in Peru.  They have also hiked in Tibet and in the Himalayas to Mt. Everest Base Camp.

They cycled St. James Way (
El Camino de Santiago de Compostela) and cycled alongside the Danube from Germany to Hungary. They have scuba dived in the Bay Islands off the Honduran coast. 

Their adventurers are normally dedicated to raise funds for causes that are dear to them. 
Watch Joe & Lily summit Kilimanjaro.

Books by Dr. José Azel
Mañana in Cuba is a comprehensive analysis of contemporary Cuba with an incisive perspective of the Cuban frame of mind and its relevancy for Cuba's future.
Buy now

 
Pedazos y Vacíos is a collection of poems written in by Dr. Azel in his youth. Poems are in Spanish.
Buy now
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