Jail Time for Cheap Rides?
by Jack Nicastro, Reason, March 4, 2025.
Excerpt:
Empower, a ride reservation service, has been hounded by Washington, D.C., regulatorssince it began its operations in 2020. CEO Joshua Sear will be arrested on Wednesday for violating the Department of For-Hire Vehicles’ (DFHV) cease and desist order if the app doesn’t shut down by then. Mayor Muriel Bowser has the power to direct the DFHV to rescind its order, which would allow Empower to continue operating in the city.
Sear founded Empower in 2019, not as a transportation company but as a software company that serves independent professional drivers. Empower differs from the flagship ride-share services in multiple ways. Unlike Uber and Lyft, drivers who use Empower do not receive 1099 forms—they are not contractors, but customers, according to the company.
The company also does not collect a percentage of every fare, nor does it set them; its drivers set their own rates by adjusting their minimum and base fares, per minute, per mile, and surge prices as they see fit. They then pay Empower a flat monthly fee of $349.99 for access to the D.C. Monthly Platinum plan, which “provides drivers with unlimited access to Empower’s software and support services.” Empower’s suggested rates are “set so that drivers make 20% – 25% more on average than they would if they were driving on behalf of Uber/Lyft [and] riders also save 15-20% on average.”
Dead People Aren’t Bankrupting Us
by Liz Wolfe, Reason, March 5, 2025.
Excerpt:
“Part of the confusion comes from Social Security’s software system based on the COBOL programming language, which has a lack of date type,” reported the Associated Press last month in response to DOGE reports about improper payments. “This means that some entries with missing or incomplete birthdates will default to a reference point of more than 150 years ago.” (The agency auto-stops payments to those older than 115.) The Social Security Administration’s inspector general has admitted as much: The agency is really struggling to figure out how to “properly annotate death information in its database” per the A.P., and there are nearly 20 million Social Security numbers of people born in 1920 and earlier who haven’t been marked as dead. But Trump is conflating “not marked as dead in a database” with “received benefits”—an absolutely wild leap we have no evidence to support. In fact, the July 2023 report from the inspector general notes that “almost none of the numberholders discussed in the report currently receive SSA payments.”
Economic Uncertainty in the US Economy
by Timothy Taylor, Conversable Economist, March 5, 2025.
Excerpt:
The US uncertainty index is not official government data. It is based on a method developed by three economists, Scott R. Baker, Nick Bloom, and Steven J. Davis. I mentioned their approach here when it was first being developed back 2012. They combine three sources of data: “the frequency of newspaper articles that reference economic uncertainty and the role of policy; the number of federal tax code provisions that are set to expire in coming years; and the extent of disagreement among economic forecasters about future inflation and future government spending on goods and services.” The average value from 1985-2010 is arbitrarily set at 100. Thus, you can see spikes during the Great Recession, the pandemic, and now early in 2025.
How tariffs will make America poorer
Editorial Board, Washington Post, March 4, 2025.
Excerpt:
All this could cost the typical U.S. household about $1,245 in lost purchasing power, according to a projection from the Budget Lab at Yale. Another model estimates that if Canada, China and Mexico retaliate symmetrically — imposing same-size tariffs on U.S. goods — American incomes would fall 0.5 percent in real terms. Real wages in Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, Michigan and Ohio would fall by almost 0.6 percent.
To see how this works, consider the auto industry, the most integrated in North America. Thirty-eight percent of the value of cars imported from Mexico comes from parts and components made in the United States. Seventeen to 36 percent of the makeup of Cadillac models assembled in the United States is sourced in Mexico. Auto parts cross North American borders several times before ending up put together on a dealer’s lot. A 25 percent tariff would boost their price on every crossing, decimating the industry’s competitiveness.
DRH note: Washington Post owner Jeff Bezos recently told his editorial writers that they should write editorials in favor of free markets. This editorial is implicitly in favor of free markets. Maybe the editorial writers are paying attention?
Government versus Private Vaccine Mandates
by Jeffrey Miron and Karthi Gottipati, Libertarian Land, March 5, 2025.
Excerpt:
Libertarians, however, distinguish between government-imposed mandates and those set by private entities, emphasizing the unintended and potentially harmful consequences of government mandates. For instance, one study suggests that such mandates eroded public trust in government institutions and, paradoxically, made vaccine-hesitant individuals even less willing to get vaccinated.
That said, libertarians defend the right of private entities to require vaccinations for employees, customers, or other stakeholders.
A recent study illustrates the effectiveness of this private-sector approach:
Our findings reveal that employer vaccine mandates significantly increased staff vaccination rates. This had life-saving effects on the health of nursing home residents, who experienced reductions in both COVID-19 cases and mortality. For every two facilities that implemented a mandate, approximately one life was saved. Given that a typical nursing home houses only 100 residents, this impact is substantial.
Note: The accompanying picture is a graph of economic uncertainty.
READER COMMENTS
steve
Mar 9 2025 at 4:22pm
A little historical perspective is in order. No vaccine has reached herd immunity levels without mandates in the US. So we would still have polio deaths, smallpox and many more measles cases without mandates. If these cases and deaths were limited to the people who chose to not get vaccinated I mostly wouldn’t care although as a medical professional I would have had to care for them when they came to the hospital for care and I would have been at risk. I already accepted that risk but the annoyance level would be high.
Anyway, by making vaccines mandatory we have essentially eliminated diseases like smallpox meaning I have the freedom to go anywhere in the US I want without fear of contracting the disease. Since I care about my own freedom I am not happy with the idea that someone could voluntarily put me or my family at risk. Again, if we have some way to confine the risks to those who refuse a vaccine then I dont care.
As a side note there has always ben some resistance to vaccines. The recent covid issue was exceptionally politicized. Attempts t avoid vaccines and use incentives largely failed. In West Virginia they were offering guns if you got vaccinated. Didnt work. This study is not especially well done as it offers no original research and just offers a bunch of other studies from which they selectively quote not noting studies that disagree with their conclusions. It’s less useful than a poorly done meta-analysis and should be regarded as an opinion piece, not a study.
Steve
robc
Mar 9 2025 at 8:29pm
The fact that mandates were necessary to reach herd immunity is not a convincing argument to a deontologist.
Mactoul
Mar 9 2025 at 8:57pm
Why a vaccinated person would be at risk? If you are vaccinated against small pox, measles etc, doesn’t it mean you are protected against these diseases?
Otherwise what is the point of vaccination?
Alan Goldhammer
Mar 10 2025 at 9:00am
It is highly dependent on the vaccine and disease. for viruses that do not readily mutate, vaccination is quite good as in the case of small pox, measles and chicken pox. For common varieties of flu and what we have seen with COVID, it different which is why one needs an annual vaccination if one is inclined to get as much protection as possible. Vaccine technology also changes as in the case with the various pneumonia vaccines that have come out over the past 15 years. Similarly, we have a new shingles vaccine and one for RSV which are highly protective.
The fundamental question is where one imposes a vaccine mandate based on the public health. Should vaccination against polio be mandated in the US given the virus is not endemic here? We have seen cases of whooping cough which can have a high health impact on infants and children and there are ways of opting out of these as well as MMR.
If one does not believe that vaccine development is one of the major public health accomplishments of the past century, perhaps they can be cavalier about getting vaccinated. I’m old enough to remember how polio affected families when children or parents came down with the disease and suffered varying degrees of disabilities.
steve
Mar 10 2025 at 12:01pm
No vaccine is 100% effective. Smallpox and measles are close, but we still count on herd immunity to prevent outbreaks. Also, there are people that for actual medical reasons should not be vaccinated and unvaccinated people put them at risk.
I wonder how many deontologists would knowingly send their kids to school with unvaccinated kids? Anyway, I am not really sure exactly what liberties one loses if one doesnt get vaccinated. The liberty to spread the virus to other people? The ability to say no? The risks of the vaccines are lower than the risks of the disease so if you are willing to accept the risk of the disease it seems like you would be willing to risk the vaccines.
Steve
Richard W Fulmer
Mar 9 2025 at 4:40pm
Trump is a one-man pandemic.
David Seltzer
Mar 9 2025 at 6:47pm
Richard, very perceptive and darkly funny!
Monte
Mar 10 2025 at 12:13pm
Surpassed in pain and suffering only by the twindemic of Biden and his puppeteers.
Mark Barbieri
Mar 9 2025 at 9:31pm
I still think you should go after that WaPo Editorial Page Editor job. You’re the perfect candidate, accept for living on the wrong coast.
David Henderson
Mar 10 2025 at 7:47pm
Thanks, Mark.
Thomas L Hutcheson
Mar 9 2025 at 9:58pm
Good WaPo editorial, but, like most others focuses only on prices of tariffed goods and not the deadweight losses on imports and those transmitted through the exchange rate of subsiding non-tariffed imports and discouraging exports.
Vaccine mandates. Did governments mandate these except for its employees?
Alan Goldhammer
Mar 10 2025 at 9:02am
“Vaccine mandates. Did governments mandate these except for its employees?”
The State of Maryland did NOT have a vaccine mandate for the general population.
Monte
Mar 10 2025 at 12:54pm
Uncertainty indexes, Surprise indexes, Misery indexes, oh my! Aren’t all of these influenced more by perception than precise measures of objective reality? Uncertainty has been called “the monster under the bed of every CEO.” What are we to do?
“A wave of new scientific discoveries reveals that learning to lean into uncertainty in times of rapid change is a promising antidote to mental distress.”
–Maggie Jackson, New York Times
Jon Murphy
Mar 10 2025 at 2:03pm
Very true, but just because something is imprecise doesn’t imply it’s not real, or isn’t important. As FA Hayek discussed so long ago, tacit, inarticulate knowledge is vital. Rapid uncertainty makes it that much harder to plan, to use one’s knowledge.
Monte
Mar 10 2025 at 3:16pm
Oh, I agree. That’s why I followed with the quote by Maggie Jackson. Rather than dismiss the data as unreal or unimportant, use it to mitigate risk. For instance, as an investor, I might choose to diversify away market risk by investing long-term in the Vanguard Total Market Index, as Dr. Henderson advises. With regard to certain other risks, I usually pack an umbrella and an Heckler & Koch VP .40 caliber.
TMC
Mar 11 2025 at 2:15pm
Thanks for the weekly reading. You have a very widespread taste in news, which makes it interesting.
One thing about the COBOL explanation – COBOL uses/d a default date of May 20, 1875, which would put the people at 149 yrs old. That issue was largely resolved in the Y2K updates anyways. Also, while that made the headlines, there were even more people in the 140s and 130s, so the COBOL reference was just a lazy shot in the dark. Likely its just a mix of very poor record keeping, and possibly some fraud.