Warning: some salty language for the first ten seconds, then at 4:14.
I wondered if having an open system like this would flood the streets with an overage of workers making their dilapidated cars barely profitable sweatshops on wheels, but by the looks of things, these are financially successful sole businessmen who make their living (didn't see ladies, though I'm sure there may be some) with worthy rides. I also see men who can still use a low skill, yet honorable, job as a way to make it in America when they come from overseas. I also see a 100% Democrat (you know, the party of the working man?) council ready to reduce the number of cabbies by 2/3rds with a medallion system that gives power to big business and guts the revenue of the remaining drivers.
But the Democrat council also sees a group of successful free men. Not a protected group for which to feel pity while simultaneously shaking down. Not a voting bloc. Not a system that needs government management. In other words, they see the enemy.
Update: I think I was too subtle in why this has a local dimension with my opening reference, so I'll be more clear here. After I saw what a good job the taxi drivers did with providing affordable taxi rides in DC, since it is a job that pays the bills, it is a safe working environment for cabbie and fare, and it has lifelong career potential, TM Lutas' jitney idea would be an excellent alternative to the hundreds of millions required to extend the South Shore. There currently are van pools which ferry workers to the Loop and back (and the Tri State bus system to the airports), but I can also foresee mini buses as being a good deal, too. But I can predict, as sure as sunrise, how the Lake County Democrats will react based on their equally honorable counterparts in DC, and why this will remain a fool's dream with no chance on earth for consideration.
I will not be pushed, filed, stamped, indexed, briefed, debriefed or numbered. My life is my own. - British TV show The Prisoner
Video credit Moonbattery.
