France Arrests Entrepreneurs for Crime of Innovation. Is it Any Wonder the Economy Sucks?
CEO of Uber France has been arrested because, uh, his competitors have resorted to violence to defend their inferior product. The fact that the victim rather than the perpetrators of violence is getting arrested speaks volumes to how far governments will go to block innovation that hurts politically-connected incumbents.
After days of violent protests and defiance on the part of Uber's French management, two of the company's employees were taken into custody for "illicit activity" today. Uber France CEO Thibaut Simphal and Uber European GM Pierre-Dimitri Gore-Coty were arrested for running the company's ride-sharing service illegally. TechCrunch reports the pair is also being held under suspicion of "concealing digital documents." Last week, French Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve took legal action to shut down UberPOP, the service that employs non-professional drivers to provide rides, in response to protests that blocked key transportation hubs.
... While UberPOP was banned in France earlier this year, an appeals court said it could continue to operate until the final decision was handed down in September.
Damon Gentry:
“Then you will see the rise of the men of the double standard–the men who live by force, yet count on those who live by trade to create the value of their looted money–the men who are the hitchhikers of virtue. In a moral society, these are the criminals, and the statutes are written to protect you against them. But when a society establishes criminals-by-right and looters-by-law–men who use force to seize the wealth of disarmed victims–then money becomes its creators’ avenger. Such looters believe it safe to rob defenseless men, once they’ve passed a law to disarm them." -- Ayn Rand
June 29, 2015, 12:07 pmAndrew Garland:
Governments pass enough laws to convict everyone, then collect protection money (contributions and outright bribes) to allow businesses to operate.
Uber competes with businesses which have paid for protection. The government must keep its promise to provide that protection, or risk losing the protection money it demands from everyone.
June 30, 2015, 10:44 am