Policy

Unrepentant Unlicensed Taxi Driver: "There's absolutely nothing wrong with what I do."

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In his book The Right to Earn a Living, public interest attorney Timothy Sandefur explains how taxi licensing laws are just one of the many arbitrary and unnecessary types of regulation that restrict economic liberty while enriching special interests. Writing today at the Pacific Legal Foundation's Liberty Blog, Sandefur highlights an extraordinary story from Aspen, Colorado where a man named Phil Sullivan just spent over a week in jail for operating an unlicensed taxi. And as Sullivan told The Aspen Times, he refuses to accept the idea that he did anything wrong:

There is absolutely nothing that I can think of that's wrong with what I do. I drive a car, I've got a license, I'm insured. There's nothing wrong with that. I pick up people. I've been picking them up for years and years, strangers and friends, not only in Aspen but in the streets of Chicago and the streets of Stockton, Ill., etc., and I take them where I want to go and I've had nice times talking to them and I take them to their destination. I generally help them into their house if they need to be there. There's absolutely nothing wrong with what I do.

Amen, brother.

Read Sullivan's full story here. Watch Sandefur discuss The Right to Earn a Living below.