Massachusetts to tax ride-hailing apps, give the money to taxis
You and a friend are stranded on an island. You both spend all your working hours catching fish by hand in order to eat.<p>You use some leisure time to build a fishing rod, which enables just one of you to catch enough fish to feed you both.<p>It would be foolish to destroy the fishing rod to preserve both your jobs as fishermen. One of you would fish and the other would do something else, like build shelter and cut firewood.<p>It&#x27;s just the two of you, so you don&#x27;t literally exchange in barter, but an implicit exchange takes place when you share the fish, shelter and firewood.<p>You both enjoy a better standard of living thanks to the productivity increase created by the fishing rod.<p>A modern economy is much more complex but the same fundamental principle applies.<p>The ride-hailing apps make taxi drivers more productive by helping them connect with customers faster.<p>Now it takes fewer taxi drivers to satisfy the demands of customers. This frees up the labor time of the remaining taxi drivers to produce additional goods or services.<p>There is certainly temporary pain endured by workers who are displaced by the innovation. But it is folly to subsidize work that is no longer in demand.