Free Markets Produce “Uber” Great Benefits
All too often, we hear pro-big government types continually preach that the free market is a broken, failed, and flawed system. The government is needed to step in and rectify all wrongs in the market, according to their thinking.
If this were so, then success stories like the ride-sharing company Uber should not be possible. Instead, we can clearly see the benefits and efficiency of a free market in comparison to the disincentives and inefficiency offered by government control.
The concept behind Uber is simple: a smartphone application is used to arrange rides between riders and drivers. Yet this little notion has spurred massive demonstrations among government-supported taxicab drivers. Why? Because they are afraid that Uber will usurp their importance and “unfairly” squeeze them out.
Now that logic would not be accepted in everyday, normal situations. If a football team beats another football team fair and square because they had better players, the team that lost couldn’t say “We should win, because the other team was unfair!” Nor should a second place pie maker ask the county fair pie committee to give him the win, because the first place pie was “too good” and the committee needed to “uphold fairness and equality” in the pie contest. Why do we laugh at these preposterous proposals? Because they don’t make sense! So why do so many in the political sphere readily accept such notions when applied to nationwide governance?
The simple fact is that Uber has made thousands of people’s lives easier and shows the power of the free market. Why should government step in to quash such a good idea? According to the taxicabs’ logic, it’s because Uber threatens their control.
But wait a minute. Since when was a free market ever about control? Since when was our country supposed to be about the top-down approach? Last time I checked, our government was endowed by our Creator to protect our inalienable rights of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness, not restrict them.
Now the free market is not perfect. No system can ever be, for humanity needs government to be a check inward evil. But the free market is the best economic system out there that has led to freedom and prosperity for billions. Uber is a fantastic example of how a free market outpaces outdated government regulations and strengthens society. Government regulations tend to stifle the wonderful poverty-busting tool of capitalism and instead create more problems tha
