Ashton Kutcher Tears Into Corrupt Regulatory Barriers to Businesses Like Uber

Over at the Independent Women's Forum, Reason contributor Abby Schachter points out that Ashton Kutcher, inescapable TV presence, one-time Demi Moore boy-toy, and current Uber investor, has developed a sharp business savvy and an aversion to stupid regulatory barriers. On the Jimmy Kimmel show, Kutcher went from stroking his host to venting about crony-capitalist rules in record time.

Writes Schachter:

Kimmel asked if the service was available only in Los Angeles and New York or elsewhere. Kutcher said that it was global, but still couldn't get into some places.

Kimmel asked Kutcher to describe the problem so Kutcher he did. There's "only [trouble in] some cities where there's some old, antiquated legislation that doesn't allow it to exist there…. [There's a] Mafioso village mentality of 'we're not going to let the new guy in'…in Miami it doesn't exist because of some dumb regulation that says it can't exist there. For a while in Denver they couldn't have…cars there…[W]ith Uber cab or airbnb or any of these new peer-to-peer networks, you have old-school monopolies and incumbents, and old-school governments that get kickbacks from various people that don't want the new guy to come in so they try to kick them out of their city. But the people are going to have what the people want and the people say they want Uber and the people say they want airbnb."

It's amazing how clear and coherent a seemingly flighty celebrity can become when describing an encounter with the destructive power of politicians and government. Rage does focus the mind.

See Reason's extensive coverage of crony-capitalist efforts to obstruct and destroy entrepreneurial companies like Uber.