Fortunately, Republicans in Texas figured it out and overrode Brownback's veto.

*Kansas

Supply side economists are not libertarian. That's just the other side of the coin from Democrats. Both believe government tax policy is an instrument to micromanage an economy. The actual truth is that markets exist notwithstanding what the government does. All the government does, whether under the control of either party, enacting tax policies, is to create bubbles and malinvestment.

Yep, that is the ONLY thing government does.

Got evidence of that, eturnage? If you understood the first thing about markets you'd recognize that what government does is prevent markets from generating terrible social outcomes. Unless you like the idea of monopolies and aristocracy, that is. Oh, and pollution.

Of course the fact that there is a mountain of evidence that trickle on economics and austerity are terrible ideas isn't going to prevent a lot of people from pushing for them anyway. As Cheney famously said "facts don't matter"

Monopolies are a function of government. They usually arise by way of restricted licensing, such as the tax cab medallion systems in Chicago and New York. The wealthy use their influence with the political process to gain advantages in the markets. A good example is how various presidents the Sherman Antitrust law to selectively attack competitors of their campaign donors, paving the way for higher prices. A third example is the EpiPen disaster which is a function of the Patton law that allows only one firm to sell the item to consumes. There are a lot more examples.

You do understand that licensing exists as a way to pay for law enforcement by government, right?

This is what Uber is finding out when they let criminals drive for them.

And here I thought libertarians loved fee for use.

Licensing is also used by government to raise revenues and benefit friends of government. It makes us beholden to the government. In my State, one must have a license to even cut hair. The lobbyists of the cosmetology tech schools like it this way because they can charge huge prices to teach something easily learned and mastered by on the job training.

Uber is a good example of free market competition. Prices go down. Service goes up. Naturally, the media and government want to attack and sensationalize any problems involving Uber, even when the problem has little to do with the service it provides.

Eturnage, apparently you never studied US history from 1860-1920. Monopolies occur because big companies can shut down small ones until they control the entire market. Without anti trust regulators, every industry ends up under monopoly control. Period

Maybe you should go get your hair cut at a beauty school then eturnage. That's called on the job training.

Consumers *DEMAND* that we have regulations. There have been too many instances where people are injured due to negligence. It's not like these laws and associated regulations spring out of nowhere.

Uber is also an example of what goes wrong without licensing and regulation. From hiring criminals because of poor or no background checks to overcharging by using surge pricing as in London during the recent terrorist attacks.

Then there has been the class action lawsuits by the "independent" employees over whether they are truly independent because of company restrictions and requirements. Fraud charges on how much they told employees they could make. A "miscalculation" on the company's percentage off the gross fare instead of the contracted net fare. Sexual harassment of female employees.

Without some government oversight these problems could be ignored because individuals wouldn't have the resources to fight back against a company.