We read yesterday that our brave Men in Blue arrested an old man who was driving a red Chevy, an illegal taxi who serviced the Oranjestad – Noord route via Ponton.
Bravo.
So they arrested the man, a pensioner, who probably gets a couple hundred florins a month from his pension. He wanted to supplement his income and decided to put his clunky car to good use.
Why?
Because there is a BIG need for it.
In a free market, a vacuum in never long-lived, people identify needs and jump in to provide services.
Arubus has been running EMPTY big busses on Malmok every morning, refusing to change its modus operandi.
My readers talked about it a number of times. Open transportation up, as private, small business opportunities and make each driver, his own boss, carrying the necessary insurance and licenses, aware of his duty to provide service and safety.
How would the housekeeping living in Oranjestad get to their work places in Noord, if you arrest the old men driving battered cars, providing the much-needed service.
So now, the housekeepers are stuck, they must walk, or beg acquaintances, instead of respectfully being chauffeured around for a fee.
Apparently the taxi unions complained to the minister, otherwise I don’t understand why their picked that illegal NICHE of the market.
There is a boom of illegal businesses on the island, under every tree, on every street, I don’t see any enforcement there.
Instead selective enforcement rules.
The mostly-absent, useless Minister of Transport, Telecommunications and Primary Sector is making his presence felt just before retiring from the political arena. And we gratefully acknowledge he will not be running on the MEP party list next year, allowing him more time to spearfishing, with a special dispensation he engineered, and perhaps some rip roaring good time on his ATV.
Permits, are the root of all evil on Aruba. A chokehold on the economy.
Not that permits are wrong.
They are good.
But we corrupted and MONITIZED the system to benefit the ones who sign on the bottom.
Open transport up, give people, including Arubus drivers, the opportunity to supplement their income and share the economy, once you disband Arubus
