Wednesday, June 13, 2007
Muslim Taxi Drivers Want Control
Taxi cab companies should be able to determine what is and what is not allowed in their cabs, not the cab driver him or herself. If you do not like it you could always quit and find a job more suitable to your religious beliefs. In all seriousness - where is the line? If one religion gets special privelage, should all the others? Is it because we are so afraid of how Muslims will react if we "punish" them. What does that say about their religion?
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16 comments:
I'm going to buck the debate trend here for a moment and just say, how funny is it that in an article about alcohol they quote Ahmed Rehab, executive director of the Chicago office of the Council on American-Islamic Relations. Rehab? Come on, that's funny.
??Isn't the commision alreay doing what you want them to do? Did I miss a part of the article where they're getting special treatment?
As for me, anything a company wants to do that removes a little bit more religion from public spaces is fine with me.
With the media attention I wonder if the company may buckle. They are doing what I hope they would do. It is interesting though that this situation has presented itself. I like to have discussions about issues like these that come up.
Ok. Then it's just real funny to me that your reaction to a company refusing to make allowances for their Muslim worker's religous beliefs is "In all seriousness - where is the line? If one religion gets special privelage, should all the others?"
Sorta knee-jerk a little bit?
Im thinking the acutal problem here is the regulation of taxi cabs. By controlling the supply of taxis in the city, the city government now has to deal with this problem. Had the markets been given free reign, some cabs would and some cabs wouldn't. If enough patrons found these rules to be bothersome they would select for more accomdating cabs. Over time the market would force cab drivers that stricly adhere to this rule out of business.
But im sure back when the decision was made to regulate taxi cabs smart experts could see this potential problem and prepared a contingency to deal with it.
Dude, the city government isn't doing shit. The commision that runs the airport is changing their corporate policy. No laws are being passed, no one is federally regulating anything.
Someone should vist Smith and Engels more often.
I dont know why you say its knee jerk? I have issues when the Muslim community wants special rules becuase of their religion. It upsets even more whem companies buckle to those rules. I hope this does not happen here.
Its sets a dangerous precedent in my mind.
I want people to assimilate into our country. I do not feel like certain groups should get special rules just for thier beliefs. This is going to create factions of our country. We used to be a melting pot. We are slowly becoming a more and more divided country. One day - they are going to say everone east of mississipi has these rules and everyone west of the rockies has these rules. Then we are going to have another kick ass civil war. No thanks.
I know that may seem drastic but I truly believe little things like this will continue to add up if they are not stopped.
Oh no, I totally agree with that. That's all cool. I'm just not sure why your headline or post didn't say 'Thank you Minneapolis airport for standing up against religious special interest groups.' But that's fine, maybe I'm reading too much into your phrasing.
I guess I'm just commenting that your constant outrage, whether or not something negative is actually happening, is funny to me.
Sophist- k, if you're reffering to a specific article other than the one in the post, I'd suggest citing it. But yeah, that shit is always scary- I still don't know how cartels/ownership of the physical infrastructe works with cable (television and internet), and it really worries me (especially in relation to Net Neutrality issues).
Does this help?
This never would of been an issue if the free markets were in play. Only when 'experts' control a market does shit like this happen.
I think you mean 'only when a single entity has a monopoly on a mraket does shit like this happen." You don't think that private companies employ people who would call themselves experts?
The vast majority of monopolies come about through government action. Invariably these intrusiosn are justified by experts. One of the most commonly used purposes of experts is to justify forcing adults capable of their own choice into doing something they would rather not do.
Non-state sponsored monopolies, while rare, are just as annoying, but dont normally require the justification of an expert. Over time the company begins to dominate a marker regardless of expert justification.
I think you mean to say, 'In a system where the government uses regulations and anti-trust laws to vigorously guard against monopolies, the vast majority of monopolies that slip through come about through government action." Trust me, when there's no governemnt intervention, you'll get plenty of monopolies, often enforced by private militia.
Non-state-sponsored monopolies are certainly run by experts; of course they don't need justification, because their justification is profit. And yes, anyone who wants to coerce people into doing something they don't like is going to say 'experts said it will work', but that's not an indictment of experts, it's a testament ot how manipulative those people are. That would be like blaming God for all the crazy criminals who kill people and then say "God talked to me. God said they had to be punished."
"Trust me, when there's no governemnt intervention, you'll get plenty of monopolies, often enforced by private militia."
Err, government’s unique definitional characteristic is it’s monopoly on coercion. Conditions in which a ‘private’ militia can operate without hindrance from another state entity is the de facto government for that region. Therefore, if monopolies ran rampant in that region it would must likely due to the corrupt relationship between the private militia and the companies. We see this time and again in third world countries. To be perfectly frank, I’m not sure why we are even discussing it.
In a true free market system monopolies are hard to sustain. In almost all cases they need the coercive power of the state to maintain dominance. Companies can’t make you shop at their store. Governments can.
I dont understand your second point.
My second point:
You disparage experts, because politicians do stupid things and then say they had experts advising them.
This doesn't mean there's a problem with experts. It means that when politicians screw up, they know that expert advice is a great thing to blame their failings on.
The corporations that you are so complimentary towards are all run by experts. You don't think Bill Gates considers himself an 'expert'?
Experts are fine. The people who suck are politicians and media figures who come up with their own stupid ideas, and then search the country for someone they can claim is an 'expert' who is willing to agree with them on camera.
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