The Guardian (UK) reports:
[A] group of French cleaning ladies who organised a car-sharing scheme to get to work are being taken to court by a coach company which accuses them of "an act of unfair and parasitical competition".
The women, who live in Moselle and work five days a week at EU offices in Luxembourg, are being taken to court by Transports Schiocchet Excursions, which runs a service along the route. It wants the women to be fined and their cars confiscated.
Two years ago a business tribunal threw out the company's case. It is now pursuing the women in a higher court . . . ..
"Using our cars is quicker and at least twice as cheap. And on the bus we didn't have the right to eat or even to speak," said Martine Bourguignon. Odette Friedmann added: "In the evening instead of coming to get us at 9.30pm the bus would arrive at 10.30pm. If you made any comment to the driver you'd get a mouthful of abuse."
TSE is also suing the women's employer, Onet-Luxembourg. . . .
Thanks to John Chalmers for the pointer.
So if I put solar panels on my roof and generate my own power, the power company could sue me and confiscate my solar panels, using the bus company's "logic."
Talk about out-of-control socialism: You must use the collective solution. Private initiative is evil....
Title:
The Road from Welfare to Work: Informal Transportation and the Urban Poor
ABSTRACT:
Individuals struggling to move from welfare to work face numerous obstacles. This Article addresses one of those obstacles: lack of transportation. Without reliable transportation, many welfare recipients are unable to find and maintain jobs located out of the reach of traditional forms of public transportation. Professor Garnett argues that lawmakers should remove restrictions on informal van or jitney services, allowing entrepreneurs to provide low-cost transportation to their communities. This reform would not only help people get to work, but it could also provide jobs for low-income people.
What's happening here is not so different from the transportation cabals in the US, where numerous companies fight to maintain monopoly control. It's only marginally more ridiculous.
The ladies won't need their cars and the buses won't be needed so pollution will lessen and the globe will warm up a bit slower. This works on so many levels.
And they said socialism wouldn't work.
Though it's in the legislative context, there have been similar arguments raised by businesses regarding municipal wi-fi plans.
Or looking at the Sonny Bono Copyright Extension Act, where a 56-year copyright term did not suffice, because there was still more profit to be extracted on various works of music and film. Eldred v. Ashcroft, 537 U.S. 186 n.14 (2003) cites the statement of Sen. Feinstein where she actually mentions "the right to profit" not being satisifed by the law at that time (though admittedly she was not talking about a corporate right to profit in that quote).