Uber Oklahoma Under Attack?
From an Uber Oklahoma email blast this evening:
Since launching less than two years ago, uberX ridesharing has already started to reshape Oklahoma’s transportation ecosystem. Riders are finding a more reliable and affordable way to connect to their communities, and drivers are benefitting from life-changing income opportunities.
Tomorrow, your state senator, Bill Brown, will be part of a committee hearing on the future of services like Uber, and he needs to hear from his constituents. Specifically, they are considering a measure called SB 436, which would threaten ridesharing in Oklahoma. Tell Senator Brown that you support Uber and to vote NO on SB 436.
In 2013, there wasn’t a single law in the United States regulating ridesharing. But by the end of 2014, more than 20 cities and states in the US, including Oklahoma City and Tulsa, had passed new regulatory frameworks to support this rapidly growing transportation alternative. And now, we’re hard at getting Oklahoma added to that list, while making sure the most forward-thinking parts of Oklahoma City’s and Tulsa’s regulations are preserved.
Join us in standing up for innovation, opportunity and consumer choice in Oklahoma — email Senator Brown today!
— Team Uber Oklahoma
This editorial is in response to a post on TheOkie.com regarding Uber and other ride-sharing services.
“Government’s view of the economy could be summed up in a few short phrases: If it moves, tax it. If it keeps moving, regulate it. And if it stops moving, subsidize it.”
– Ronald Reagan
Almost EVERY elected “conservative” has responded erroneously to the Uber phenomenon.
Uber, et al – like many ideas before it – is not only innovative, it is a free market response to an over-regulated, over-taxed service that has managed to only thrive in a free market economy: the venerable taxi cab.
If you are reading this in New York City, D.C., or some other high population density urban area, you might have a different take. Here in fly-over country, the taxi is the stuff of biz travelers, vacationers, or to get you to the liquor store when your license has been suspended.
Oklahoma City, for example, is slightly smaller than Los Angeles when talking square miles. But the entire population of the Sooner State is less than that of the greater Dallas-Ft. Worth metro. Thus, taxis are not as “crucial” to the masses in my town as larger population centers. Add to this that metro transit busses are virtually nonexistent in the outlying suburbs of OKC, and one cab fare from Will Rogers Airport to Edmond would require monthly payments, and you have an equation for… Uber, et al.
So, what do the supposedly “conservative” elected officials do?
They tax, regulate, and (when the taxis start to fade into history) subsidize. In other words, government as usual.
Here was a chance for adherents to free-market principles, and actual FREEDOM itself to be championed by those who have run against “big gubmint” to voted into office by we gullible proles.
I can’t tell you how many times someone I know – or even I, myself – has offered to pay for gas to someone who can afford me a ride. Guess what? There were no taxes, no regulation, no licenses (except for a driver’s license that now even illegal aliens can get in some states).
In the past, Oklahoma has been a place where pioneers have pumped oil, conquered air and space, and even brought to the world the humble but indispensable shopping cart ands thus changed the country and the world. What if Sylvan Goldman (the “G” in T.G.&Y.) had introduced the shopping cart today? Would these same “conservative, small government, free-market conservatives” bend to the “hand basket lobby” and regulate to the death his new innovation?
Probably. But that’s what passes for conservatism in the Great Red State these days.
The correct response to the Uber innovation amidst complaints of unfairness from Big Taxi should NOT be to equally regulate and tax Uber, et al, but to DE-reg and LOWER taxes and fees currently imposed on taxi companies.
Return us to the “land of the free.”
Reido
Amen! The market regulates itself – if you let it.
All the bill does is require minimum insurance limits on the vehicle. An Uber driver ran over a little girl in a crosswalk in CA. Commercial activity is not covered by personal auto policies and then Uber denied the claim under their coverage. Is this what you want? Oklahoma is already the number 1 state in uninsured motorists, whats a few thousand more? Just so a giant out of state corporation doesn’t have to protect their Oklahoma employees.