Nanny-state Democrats like to dictate how businesses operate, even if it means pricing poor people out of using them or pushing those businesses out of business.
Minneapolis is the latest culprit. The City Council passed an ordinance on Thursday that would set a series of minimum wages for Uber and Lyft drivers. The City Council even rushed through this measure so it could pass before the Minnesota Department of Labor releases its report on the topic on Friday. As a result, Lyft has said it will stop operating in Minneapolis when the measure takes effect in May, and Uber has implied the same.
Will they actually leave Minneapolis? Probably not. After all, Minneapolis Democrats aren’t the first do-gooders to think they should dictate drivers’ rates or how companies operate their business. Minneapolis’s proposal is similar to the one Seattle put in place in 2020, and the companies are still operating there. But, as is expected, the cost of using those apps will surge, pricing poorer people out. It’s no surprise that the rebound in ride-share usage after the pandemic has come to other cities while recovery in Seattle lags far behind.
This is what happens every time. McDonald’s has acknowledged that low-income consumers are eating out less often as the chain is raising its prices in California, alongside others, as a result of the state’s minimum wage hike. The strain for ride-share companies will only get worse as Democrats push them toward what California tried to do, forcing all drivers to become employees, even if they don’t want to, and raising costs significantly.
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That is why Minnesota wants “clarity” before it pushes forward with statewide pay floors to strain the companies further. This is a slow snowball rolling down a hill, collecting more and more burdens for the companies that are passed on to consumers until those burdens become too big both for them and the companies.
These changes will make a few ride-share drivers better off, while the decreasing demand will leave others worse off. Consumers across the board will be worse off, and everyone will be worse off whenever the snowball crashes and leads to the companies themselves shutting down certain areas, but in the end, Democratic politicians will feel better about themselves for having “helped.” Isn’t that what’s really important?
