> I find the idea that the best way to support the poor is to make taxis cheaper, rather than increasing the/enforcing a minimum wage absolutely bizarre.
I explained this part in my comment. Enforcing a higher minimum wage just put people out of jobs, it doesn't give everyone a raise. So you're not raising people's wage, you're actually taking away from them their whole wage bringing it down to zero.
>Enforcing a higher minimum wage just put people out of jobs...
Maybe increasing the amount taxi drivers are paid would drive up the cost of taxis and thus drive down demand for taxis. This seems reasonable to me. We're defining a minimum amount somebody's time is worth, which means the cost of things that use peoples time go up.
The root "problem" taxi drivers solve still exists - people still need to get around, but taxis aren't the only way to solve that problem. Train and bus services could be expanded or improved.
The other thing to consider is that the extra money the taxi drivers earn will most likely provide other economic opportunities.
Who's We? Shouldn't taxi drivers be free to define how much they want to sell their time? Why should you decide for them? Isn't that paternalistic and anti-freedom? Why do you know better than they do what's best for them? Why not let them be?
> Shouldn't taxi drivers be free to define how much they want to sell their time?
The problem with this is that, in my (perhaps naive) mind, the logical conclusion is a race to the bottom fuelled by greed (of the business) and desperation (of the employee) which helps nobody. In my view there should be a regulation to prevent how far this can go.
By the way, I don't think we'll agree on any of these points, but it's refreshing to have a discussion that doesn't descend into name-calling and personal criticism :)
> the logical conclusion is a race to the bottom fuelled by greed (of the business)
If that were true, we would all be paid minimum wage, which is not true. As you gain experience, you bring more value and therefor employers are forced to pay you more, which is demonstrated by reality as I said, we're not all paid minimum wage for exactly that reason. Race to the bottom happens when the minimum wage gets so high that even qualified people get minimum wage and the rest are just unemployed and don't get anything at all.
I explained this part in my comment. Enforcing a higher minimum wage just put people out of jobs, it doesn't give everyone a raise. So you're not raising people's wage, you're actually taking away from them their whole wage bringing it down to zero.