Montgomery Bus Boycotts and Trash Collection

[mrjarrell]

You wouldn't think that these two things had a great deal in common, but they do. Statist interference where the free market was working to fix the problem that arose because of statist interference.

From The Libertarian Standard

“Dr. King did not make the boycott, the boycott made Dr. King.”​

~ Veterans of the Civil Rights Movement​

The lessons of the past keep being repeated, over and over and over, and…
Blogger Mike “Mish” Shedlock posted a fascinating story on his website regarding a situation in San Francisco. In “Trash Collecting Entrepreneur Squashed In San Francisco” he cites one of his respondents, known simply as Michael, who relates a story about trash collection. One of the customers of the local trash collection service—a contractor referred to as Joe—got fed up with paying $37 per trash can, per week, for garbage removal. He and his neighbor began to take their own trash for disposal at a local dump, using “Joe’s” truck. Shortly, other neighbors joined their informal garbage disposal network, opting to pay the contractor $10 a week for more service than they were getting from the city union. Soon, after their little business had begun to unexpectedly take off, their competitors decided to call in the big guns.

When the local garbage company and its union found out about “Joe” they complained to the city. Within a year a law was passed stating that garbage service was now mandatory for all residents at the price the city’s monopoly charged, which was shortly raised. And “Joe”? For a while he still took our recyclables until he was fined $4000, even though he had our permission.
​

None of this is really that surprising. The State often passes laws to prevent competition. For example, Lysander Spooner’s attempts to compete with the post office led to the passing of laws specifically designed to prevent competition in delivery of first class mail. Recalling my Southern pig farming roots, I’d offer this metaphor. When a hog is sucking the teat, he tends to fight to keep his place in line. He cares not about his siblings and their hunger. Nor does he care that he is full. He cares about one thing: maintaining vapor lock on that teat. With apologies to any unionist garbage men in our studio audience, the garbage collection unions employed by the city of San Francisco are comparable to government teat suckers, so their reaction to some random guy actually providing service and “stealing” their business is no surprise. What I find ironic is this. Not only does this situation in San Francisco compare to Spooner’s mail delivery business, it also reflects the scenario during the Montgomery Bus Boycotts.

Read the rest at the source. It's an interesting take on things and well worth the few minutes it takes to read it.

 

[rambone]

Good post. Truly illustrates the how inefficient Government services can be when they are operating outside the rules of the free market, where wasteful behavior is rewarded, and competition is stifled by the Law.