February 07, 2003

That was a pleasure and a joy to read. Thank you.

This is the kind of news that needs to be thrown in the faces of of all the nay-sayers, drivel-drooling antis, enemies of freedom, etc., etc., etc.!

Thank you for sharing it with us!

Thank you, and my best wishes to Mr. Beniste.
As Stephen said, that was a joy to read.

It's saddening that stories like this never make the news as readily as others. It's all taken for granted. If it weren't for the fervent hope of incoming immigrants, I'd sometimes wonder if the US would simply forget how better off we are compared to the rest of the world.

Excellent story.

"Where ya headed?"
"Over the rainbow."
Nowhere else on earth could this story affect as many as it does here. What a rush!

Simply wonderful to read. Thank you for sharing it.

Wow. Great story!

Thanks very much for sharing that. I had had a pretty stressful day at work, capping off a week which began terribly on Saturday and did not improve by much. This story managed to elicit a big smile in a face that felt like it hadn't smiled in far too long.

Thanks again.

America has more promises than we know.

I'm probably the only cynic saying, "Why the hell do they make him pay so much for a hack license?"

But it's still a wonderful story. :-)

Oh, man, I gotta link to this one. Insty already has so that doesn't mean much, but it's a great story.

As we say in kindergarten, thanks for sharing.

Thanks so much for this picture of real life and real pride.

There is no joy (and no terror) like working for yourself. I hope he does well - and am thankful every day for the time I felt that joy (and that terror). It is not only his life that is better - but the guy who is going to work the other twelve hours every day.

Tim Sandefur touched upon Taxi-cab licensing a few weeks ago on his non-blog, offering this excellent excerpt:

A free market in the taxicab industry will not produce a panacea for the disadvantaged. However, it is one small way to upward mobility for some, which has been cut off by government. As such, it demonstrates again one of the key differences between disadvantaged blacks and disadvantaged ethnic groups of the past. A poor illiterate Italian, for example, arriving in our cities in 1925 or 1930 could, if he had ambition and industry, go out and buy a car and write Taxi on it. Thus he could provide upward mobility for his family. Today a poor person of any race would find that industry and ambition are not enough, if he sought the same path to upward mobility. He would find the path barricaded by a license costing $20, $30, or $60 thousand--a considerable barrier.

Or $220,000.00 to buy a license to earn a living. Like Mr. Sandefur went on to say, "Rich white guys don't drive taxis."

It is wonderful that this man has made it, but what has he really made? He has managed only to jump over an artificial construct created simply to impede people from making a living. Where is the real value add to society in this?

More good news. This is the promise of America and why the United States must stand.

The greatest gift is freedom!

Senat Beniste has taken that gift and made his own choices. Let me repeat that. Senat Beniste has taken that gift and made his OWN choices. He was not forced to start a cab company...it was his choice to work for nobody but himself. He has chosen NOT to depend on others for his future. He as chosen to climb whatever mountain stands between him and his dream, which I suspect it to build a business that he can hand down to his children so that they won't have to work for someone else for 14 years before they can launch their dream.

People determined to live their dream will not be denied by barriers, real or imagined.

Senat Beniste has probably always seen himself as a successful man, and so he shall be, one step at a time. No matter how long it takes!

Comedian, in many many completely free market situations there is a high barrier cost of entry anyway. Yes, city control sucks because market controls are more efficient. But people pay similar "franchising fees" in order to get into mom and pop operations these days, and in certain markets a weak brand is a non-starter.

IOW, immigrant guy could also sell hamburgers for a dollar, but he won't sell many because the 7-figure McDonalds branded $2 burger is what everyone wants. Unfair for immigrant guy? No, it's just the way things work.

What a wonderful story. May Mr. Beniste have much success with his beautiful new cab.

You know, other comments elsewhere on this bog, oh terribly sorry, blog, worry me. That you Americans would chat so cavalierly about the relative worth of MY country, bespeaks of a vaulting, monumentally bloated ego. Why thank you, for the kind consideration.
By the way, you bastards blasted the fecal matter out of Afghanistan-and did you rebuild? No. You balsted rubble into smaller pieces of rubble, and the warlords went back to their usual business after you partied yourself sick in their country, and left a big ugly mess. Wow, go America! Howabout that helping hand you give to the world! Yup, with help l;ike yours...by the by as well, Canada does not defend it's borders-doesn't need to. Doesn't have a fat, overfed military-doesn't need one. Doesn't possess any nukes-why bother? Even better, the ratio of guns to Canadian citizens is astonishing-7 million guns to 20 odd million people-and our murder rate is unbelievably low. yet, when we fought in the big wars-Canucks were universally respected as courageous fighters. Skilled fighters. Ask yourself why that is. or better yet-don't bother, you'll just think whatever you want to anyways, and eventually discover that the world has trundled over top of you, and consigned your mighty nation to the ash heap. It might be worth noting that Rome's greatest epoch, it's days of glory, spanned barely three hundred years. The rest was slow decline. I have a feeling it aint gonna be slow decline for you. Ta, have a lovely "Pissing the homicidal terrorists off" little action now, y'hear?

Bryce.....you poor Canadian. For the most part I respect the Canadians. It is people like you that will give any country a bad rap. Bryce time your mouth out and realize why Canada doesn't need to defend its borders. Ummm, can you say America? Thats right Bryce, the only reason there is a Canada is because there is America. As for Afghanistan, that is the way it is......I hate to say it but I am tired of seeing this country having to go in and rebuild a country every time we have to straighten it out.

Disclaimer: Any misspellings or any other errors in this message can be attributed back to Bacardi Rum since everyone wants to blame someone else.

Bryce, that was pathetic. You obviously haven't been following events in Afghanistan since October 2001.
Over a million people have returned. Some of them hadn't been back since the 1980s. Something must be improving. (And oh yeah, they've stopped the amputations too.)
Why doesn't Canada have to defend its borders? Because its neighbor is the USA--the great unipolar, unilateralist "empire" that everyone is so worried about.
After 3000 dead Americans on 9/11 this kind of loopy slander is not funny anymore--it's just disgusting.

I was going to write a little about how impressed I was with Mr. Beniste and his success in NYC, and I am impressed. His children, and his grandchildren will, I am certain, also become wonderful and productive citizens of this great nation.
And then I see this nonsense from Bryce. A troll with nothing better to do. Completely off topic and inappropriate. I thought Candians we're well-mannered.

To this story: You should syndicate this. Seriously. It's a very uplifting and refreshing view into why Americans are patriotic. This is why damn near the whole bar I was at tonight stood and cheered when a man sung the Tobby Keith 9/11 song (Can't recall the title). Patriots, the lot of us.

To Bryce: If you would like to actually gain an informed view on Afghanistan instead of what foreign media has reported, here's a very good link to an Afghan news site. It's interesting as the headlines both graciously support the US and villify us. http://afghanistannews.net/

To summerize, not only are we helping rebuild, but Afghanistan is so dedicated to maintaining this democratic government that the current President won't run in the next election as he fears if he did he might end up being viewed as a new king (Much like many wanted to make Washington in the US). That's some true dedication there. To give up power freely is not an easy thing.

"so they can lift themselves up, and lift their kids even higher"

Yes, indeed. If they lift their kids higher. And, I'd bet Mr Benist would. However, there are lots of folk out there who have come to America with their hand out, who have no intention of lifting themselves higher and who could care less whether their children become a plague on America or not.

I'm not saying these are the majority, or even a small minority. What I am saying is that we should formalize a system in America where if you come here, lift yourself up and lift your children even higher, you get to stay, but if you come here with hand out and spawn lazy criminals, we get to pack you ass out of America and send you back where you came from, without having to invest in a lot of expensive due process to get you out.

How's that sound?

What an uplifting story. You just made my day.

Mr Comedian: "A free market in the taxicab industry will not produce a panacea for the disadvantaged. However, it is one small way to upward mobility for some, which has been cut off by government."

Please.

The fact that the government limits the number of taxi licenses (medallions) is what creates the value in the first place. And the value of the medallion is what makes it possible for Mr Beniste to make an acceptable, albeit hard-worked living.

Remove regulation of the taxi medallions from the marketplace, and you'll have Mexico ... thousands of unregulated cabs, streaming the streets, driven by anyone with two hands who can touch the pedals, willing to work for so little that none of the players can make a living and willing to rob and kill foreign tourists, until the entire national tourist economy is jeopardized.

Folks, there are good economic reasons for government regulating things. And, there are very, very bogus reasons for taking the Libertarian stance on completely unfettered markets.

Think I'm wrong? Take a taxi in New York to the airport. From there take a government-regulated flight to Mexico. Now, wander about downtown Mexico City and hop into the first green taxi that pulls up when you wave your hand. And, just to be sure, when you're in each taxi, wave about a handful of cash.

Welcome to Economics 101 at Hardluck University.

This was a wonderful story, very inspiring. I suppose that was the reason the trolling Canadian had to try to spoil the party. Can't stand to think there might be something really good, even great about America.

Mr. Beniste's conduct and attitude made me think of Derek Walcott, the Nobel prize-winning poet who lives in Boston now (has for many years) but who was born in the West Indies. From time to time Mr. Walcott has made quite a big deal over the fact that sometimes taxis drive by and won't pick him up (because he's black). I'm sorry this happens but it's tiresome to see this shabby insult equated with the great institutional evil of slavery.

What a contrast Mr. Beniste makes with his simple attitude that he's proud of what he's made of his life, not bitter at what others have not done for him.

Always trust the man in the street over the intellectuals to get it right.

Great story!
Let's not forget, the medallion is resellable and therefore an investment in itself.
I would bet that one of Mr. Beniste's children won't be driving a cab following his or her graduation from college or Graduate school.
Mr. Walcott from Boston, I'm pink and a hell of a lot of cabs have passed me up in every major city in this country and elsewhere.
Bryce, I never knew a Canadian could be as ill informed as you claim to be; but maybe that's because of your stupidity rather than your being Canadian.

I liked the story, too. It is an inspirational story about the ability of individuals to dedicate themselves to a difficult enterprise in difficult circumstances and to achieve success. I am, however, not particularly clear as to what makes this a particularly American story. After all. entrepreneurialism is as old as the hills and I certainly don’t think the story would have been impossible in London, Caracas, Delhi, Damascus, or even Beijing. Am I wrong?

The responses to the story generally seem to be along the lines of “this vindicates our way of life against the carpers” and, as a non-American, I am certainly curious as to the feeling that most posters seem to have that is necessary to claim such an ordinary story as a justification of the rightness of American society. A cynic might ask that if this is the best that America has to offer (working for 14 years to achieve the “luxury” of working 12 hours a day to pay off an enormous bank loan), then there is indeed little for Americans to be proud of.

I am not such a cynic. I recognize the timeless and universal values of rugged individualism, heroic effort and the nobility of ordinary work. Perhaps that makes me different from the ordinary run of humanity, most of whom seem to be caught between the polar attractions of Americanism and anti-Americanism.

I believe that such a polarisation of views indicates a lack of reflection on the part of those who hold them. Surely, I say to myself, it is obvious that political freedom and democracy, technological progress and material wealth are generally good things, and that America is to be thanked for its excellent contributions to human civilization in these and other areas? Surely it is equally obvious that America, like all human creations, is significantly flawed, makes major mistakes and must answer to criticism?

I see a fantastic force for good in the opportunity America offers to its people. I am also appalled at the heartlessness of America's frequently a-social society. I believe that the rest of the world could benefit from emulating much of what is good about America. I also believe that America could learn a great deal from other countries. This can only take place when people in America and in the rest of the world are willing to leave childish arguments about who is "the greatest" behind. Non-Americans must swallow their pride and acknowledge how incredible the USA frequently is, Americans need to be willing to put their much-valued patriotism on hold from time to time, especially when talking to outsiders.

Paul, no doubt you are unaware that there are cities in the US that do not use Taxi Medalions; Washington DC is one. Anyone there can become a Taxi driver. Guess what? Your catastrophe didn't happen. People can make a living driving cabs in DC. None of these licenses are designed to help or protect the consumer. They are designed to give local politicians power.

Bryce, you are speaking nonsense. The Afghans were fighting the Soviets before our country got involved. The Reagan administration offered the Afghans arms, food and training. The revolt would have failed without this. No promises were made to the Afghans to rebuild their country after the war, so far as I know. So, the US was under no obligation to do so.

If you want to blame the Taliban on anyone, blame the Saudi Government. They spent $500 million on the war. Also, they exported to Afghanistan their revolutionaries and religious fanatics trying to get them killed. That was good for Saudia Arabia, but bad for Afghanistan.

I don't understand your impatience with the nation building in Afghanistan. It's going to take time to even get Afghanistan back to the economic level of 1976 when King Shah was deposed. Then it was one of the poorest countries on the planet. Come back in ten years before you complain. Stop pulling up the seedlings to see if they are growing.

Great story and great way to start my day. As for Bryce...loopy is all I can say. Don't know if this is the same guy but a quick google search brought up this:

http://www.stinz.com/cupton/allstars/bryce.html

yeah, I'd say that's him.

bb

Oh, and if you want to view some of his masterpieces, go here:

http://www.geocities.com/brycething/paint.htm

Horrid, just horrid - the Brycething. The taxi story was positively uplifting, but I do agree with Paul that if you aren't going to work to make it here, you shouldn't get to stay.

Speaking as a Canadian, the sad fact of the matter is that people who share the views of the above troll are in the majority here. I do my part to correct these ignorant views, but it pains me that I must.

Bryce;

Learn a little, will you? Start with this link:
http://www.weeklystandard.com/Content/Public/Articles/000/000/002/211awgsd.asp

Here's the money quote (literally):
"Over $900 million has been spent on such projects and more is on the way. "

We also have people in-country, trying to help.

I'd just finished reading the above-mentioned story when I came here and read your ignorant rant.

Do you have any idea at all how foolish you appear?

But all this begs the question, after all. You’re accusing us of not helping a country we leveled. The accusation is without merit because both underpinning assumptions (that we leveled it, and that we’re not currently helping) are incorrect, and the implication (that we have a responsibility to help) reeks of historical ignorance.

The two assumptions have been refuted, repeatedly. Now let’s concentrate on the implication. By what reason do we have an obligation to rebuild a country that we conquered in a conflict started by that country? Our attack was a response, a forward defense against further hostile action on their part. When one country attacks another it is taking a risk. When Afghanistan attacked us (and yes, since the terrorists were aided by Afghanistan’s government; in fact were part of that government, Afghanistan did attack us), the leaders of that country put their own lives, and those of their citizenry in peril. Afghanistan created that situation. We did not.

Any loss of life is on their heads because it was inevitable that we would respond forcefully to their violent attack: not for revenge, but to extract those top leaders responsible (if possible), and to prevent further attacks from them.

It is not our responsibility to rebuild countries that have brought us death in our own cites. Why do you not lament the fact that Afghanistan hasn’t offered to fund the repairs of the Pentagon and the rebuilding of the World Trade Center? If anything, it is Afghanistan that has the only moral obligation for rebuilding in this circumstance.

I am awestruck at your historical ignorance. Do you remember the war reparations that were, in times past, levied against conquered nations by the victors? It was commonplace; in fact it was the standard. As recently as WWI that system of compensation was still in use (to disastrous consequences in that case). When the United States and her allies defeated Germany, Italy and Japan in WWII, we would have been in line with war precedent (though quite foolish) if we had demanded reparations from those nations.

But we didn’t, did we? Yes, pragmatism would have been satisfied if we had merely walked away, leaning from our past mistakes. But we did what no nation had ever done before, certainly not on so vast a scale: we helped to rebuild those nations, helped to reconstitute their economies and set them on the path to democracy and self-determination. We were under no moral obligation to do that. We did it because it is who we are. They, at the time, thanked us profusely for it. They knew it could have ended up a lot worse. We could have occupied, annexed and dominated, as our contemporaries had done in times past (ever hear of French Indochina?).

But now you, and others, rage that we don’t rebuild enough, reconstitute infrastructure fast enough, stabilize and democratize well enough. Well, Bryce, you miss the point. We didn’t have to do it at all. That we are doing it is a credit to us (and no, pointing out a fact is not boasting, nor is it ego-fluffing).

The fact that you rage so, that you bang your rattle on your high-chair so impetuously is a direct result of a far more personal domination of you by America: we’ve caused you to raise your expectations of what a civilized nation should do when victorious over an aggressor.

So just remember, as you craft your next screed, that you only have these high expectations of the United States because of the extremely generous, precedent-breaking actions of our past. In a twisted way, your every screech of denunciation is not just an act of willful ignorance and hate; it’s also an act of subconscious adoration of who we are.

You’re welcome. I guess.

Ken

Bryce protrays in a uniquely insighthful way the intelligence and the wisdom of our neighbors to the north. Of course they have no nukes, don't guard their borders, etc. Why should they? Does anyone actually believe that the US would tolerate an attack on Canada by anyone? When it comes to defense, Canada gets a free ride on our backs. And regarding the borders...given the fact that they don't guard theirs, maybe we should rethink the deplyment of those 37,000 troops from Korea. The terrorists we've caught coming in to the US from Canada...who knows how many we've missed. To think that these guys actually had a beach at Normandy. Yeah, Bryce, you guys were respected as soldiers. The big question is...so what happened?

Thank you for sharing the story. It's beautiful. As for our Non-American friend, (I won't even bother to acknowledge Bryce), the point is that if you had more than a superficial knowledge of America you'd know that it was probably the most self-critical country on the planet. But at the same time, we REVEL, not RESENT, in the hard-earned success of others. And the spirit of optimism and "can-do" over here, did, I suspect, contribute to this good man's success.

It is what Jack Kennedy called "voting with their feet".

It was duplicated in West Germany. South Korea and South Vietnam. Having been in all three places and I can verify the terror, hard work, good luck and sheer determination that drove people to escape their tortures and come west or south as the case may be.

I have yet to hear of a case where anyone escaped to Iraq or North Korea or any other dictatorship. This why I know, despite the
Streisand, Garfalo and the legion of fools who prate the leftist line of "no war" we are just as sincere in our defense of freedom everywhere.

They are not "no war" rather it is the dislike of someone as good as Bush that drives their hate mongering.

Thanks for your comments, Julie, I am perfectly willing to acknowledge my superficiality. I have never lived in the USA, formally studied US politics, society or culture, or had any close friendships of length with Americans. I hope I never claim to "know the truth" about America (or any equally large and complex entity, for that matter).

However, and despite the inevitable information/comprehension gap, don't underestimate the average foreigner's familiarity with US culture - not just novels, films, popular music, and TV, but also many sources of printed and online news, and the vast resources of the Web (from Everything.com to blogs like this one) - all are capable of bringing much of the detail of American life close to the intelligent non-American. Much more so, I would hazard, than is the case in reverse.

I am a little bit puzzled, however, at your assertion that the USA is "probably the most self-critical country on the planet". By your own criteria, you would need a working familiarity with all the world's nations to support your claim. Well done for scotching the myth that Americans tend to make ungrounded claims (even if hedged in probabilistic language) about the uniqueness of their society.

Having said that, I certainly do accept your point that there is a great deal of internal criticism in the USA. It is one of the cornerstones of democracy and public debate in the USA certainly seems to an outsider to be thriving.

More seriously, for those of you who find a random outsider's mouthings-off of interest, I have had a few more thoughts about the question of perceived US arrogance, which I will post below in case anyone cares to take them up:

I commented on the outsider’s perception of the prevalence of patriotic (not to say chauvinistic or jingoistic) elements in American culture. There seems to be a cultural gulf between the continents here. Suffice it to say that, by many in Western Europe, even mild forms of patriotism are considered at best venal sins, at worst, the first symptoms of creeping fascism. The varying histories of our two continents are certainly at issue here. American patriotism is functionally exactly the opposite of its European equivalent: In Europe, belief in the “mother country”/”fatherland” has for so long been associated with exclusivity and backward-lookingness (racial prejudice much more exclusive than the American version, and an embarrassing polity rooted in brutal and primitive history). In the USA, in contrast, patriotism has tended to be forward-looking (focussing on the ongoing project rather than the great past), non exclusive (you are an American by virtue of passport, nothing else), and free from the absurdities of monarchy, mediaeval law, class and national rivalry. (NB, according to this model, slavery, segregation, racism, and the treatment of the original inhabitants (“Indians”) were not truly American problems, but parts of the European “legacy” which America has worked to (largely successfully) overcome).

Hence, in the old world, we tend to assume a cynical attitude to the state and its institutions, seeing the state in terms of top-down rule of the people by the government rather than bottom-up granting of power by the people to the government. European accusations of US chauvinism must be seen in this light: For us Europeans, no matter how democratic we become (and in fact, and paradoxically, increasing as we become more democratic) our nation states are embarrassing feudal-racist remnants. In wars, we died not for freedom and democracy but for “for King and country”. It is hard to forget that. While increasing Americanisation means we are becoming increasingly able to see our states in terms of universal ideals, we still make a distinction between the democracy we now enjoy and the nation states in which we happen to live. In the USA, a county founded on (the ideal of) democracy, I suppose this distinction does not need to be made.

Double wow.

Not often you get a double wow in a single thread ... a wow at the quality of this story, and a second wow at the seething insecurity in the post by Bryce. I think this thread is a wonderful microcosim of all that blogs have become: the opportunity to stumble across, like a gift hidden for the Holidays that you find in June, a wonderful and unexpected piece of text, balanced againt the knowledge that you'll need to wade through someone's frivolous attempt to troll for hits and attention.

You read the story and the whole thing seems so fresh; you read the comment and the whole thing seems so tired.

Luckily for me, I'm more compelled by the fresh than disinterested by the tired ... I'll be back to Horsefeathers.

What's amazing to me is that a man must take a mortgage for $220,000 not counting the car loan which lets say is $30,000, to earn $3.50 a ride. The fact that the majority of posters find this heartwarming is disturbing. Counting gas, insurance, maintenance, and his ENORMOUS loans he is probably burning $15-$20 a hour for just breathing in his car. Which means that he must earn between $30-50 an hour just to pull down $10-$30/hr before taxes, medical insurance, etc. Can Senat ever get to the point where he can afford to use his own services to take his own groceries home. No way. He has bought into the illusion that he is achieving success. There is no way for Mr. Beniste to live the life of the author though he undoubtably works longer and harder and with more discipline than Horsefeathers himself. If the American dream is to take pride in your ability to carry large loans and work ridiculous hours to earn sub standard wages then Mr. Beniste has achieved success. "Look how hardworking and happy the servants are, Mum, I feel whistfully patriotic." Is Amrica nothing but a nation of tenets happily paying rent? I thought we fought a war several hundred years ago to end this dispicable practice.

Bryce probably isn't a Canuck...more likely he's just another IP spoofing troll pimping his sad lack of a life around the Net.

A truely great success story but to the guy that says Government regulation is a good thing and used it to put down the Libertarians. The point is that no one wants no regulation, just not from the Federal Government. Any thing they touch gets trashed or broke and the bill is 70 or 80 cents on the dollar just for administration, unless business foots the bill directly to some degree such as the Air Lines, who are on the skids, do. Stuff administrated locally, as in NY City, costs a ton less and because it is local it it ain't boogered like a federal burocuracy would bo it. Don

Now, let's go bomb his relatives!

Shaw: You seem pretty out of touch with how the NYC taxi system works. Double-Shifted cabs take in a gross of around $2,600 per week. Lease drivers (e.g. the guy who would use Mr. Beniste's cab when he was not driving) would take home about $600 net per week. Everything above that ($2,000) would go to Mr. Beniste for the medallion lease, car lease and maintenance and gas fees. He'd keep about $1,400 net after expenses and taxes. That's $5,600 per month, or $67,000 per year.

Mr. Beniste's loan payments on the car and medallion would probably be in the neighborhood of $2,500 assuming a ten year term on the medallion loan. That would leave him about $37,000 per year in net income.

Now let us compare that with the average joe in Haiti. 80% of the population there is below the poverty line, and the average worker earns less than $100 bucks per year.

Yeah, I think it's pretty safe to say that Mr. Beniste is just slightly better off in the land of opportunity than he would be back home. I would think that he'd be quite happy "paying his rent" given the alternative. In ten years time, he'll probably have two or three more cabs, and be making thrice as much.

Welcome to the wonder of capitalism. Those who work their asses off earn something to show for it. Those who don't, well, I guess they just whine about it like you.

Mr. Lion,

Thank you for your comment. Please see my comments on your site about your debating techniques. You have raised an interesting point and I would like to follow up on it in this or another forum of your choosing.

First where do we agree?
-Mr. Beniste is a hardworking man of excellent virtue whose diligence and persistence have won him his current position.
-Mr. Beniste has succeeded based on his move to the US and his own hard work.
-Haiti does not offer similar opportunities.
-Mr. Beniste is perfectly happy to "pay the rent". His 14-years of dedication indicates he is more than happy about his career position.

Where we disagree:
-Your figures are monthly and not hourly, and I would argue they are overly optimistic. You imagine that with a second employee he can pull down a gross income of about $130,000 ($2600x52) a year, before paying his partner. I would claim this to be wildly optimistic. Also I feel that you are not taking into account accurate deductions for taxes, car maintenance, gas, insurance, etc.. While both of us can sling numbers, I believe that real research is needed, which I will do; supplying my references for your perusal and I would encourage you to do the same.

Your position: The man is working hard and succeeding.
(There is no limit to what he can achieve)
My Position: The man is working hard and seeing no real gain.
(While he is moving forward the price he is paying is too high. He runs toward the end zone but the goal posts are moving away from him. Further I am disgusted by the enormous amount of money he will generate for his debtors before he will see the true fruits of his own labors.)

I respect your opinion and would like for you or horsefeathers to reserve some space on your sites for the resolution to this disagreement. You have raised an important position and I would like to see it supported or discarded fairly.

Shawn: With regard to my debating technique, I was simply returning the style of commentary you visited on Horsefeathers. If you wish to be condescending, expect it to be visited back on you.

With regard to the income I specified, it was based on published data supporting the claim. The average cab serves 30 fares in a 12 hour shift, which results in an aproximate gross of $190. Multiply that by two (doubleshifted), and again by seven, and you end up with: $2,660 per week. Granted, that is assuming the cab maintains 30 fares per shift, but as that is less than three fares per hour, and as we can reasonably conclude that Mr. Beniste is a very hard worker indeed, I believe it's pretty accurate.

If you re-read my comment, you'll also note that I did account for taxes, expenses, and the wages of the other driver. (actually, this works backwards-- the second driver pays the owner for a lease of the car, medallion, and expenses and keeps what is left-- about $600 per week)

My data came mostly from here and was adjusted slightly for inflation from the $182.81 per-shift gross figure in 1993 (to $190).

My contention is that he is doing very well, all things considered. Yours seems to be that he has no future and is fighting a losing battle. So, then, what should he do? Give up and live on social assistance? I doubt he's the kind of man who would do that.

The fact that taxi medallions go for such very large amounts of money, and the fact that banks happily give loans for these amounts would tend to prove that one can make a decent amount of money running a cab. If this was not the case, the value of the medallions would be far less, and banks would not be handing out truckloads of money to buy them.

Thank you for sharing this story.

Great post!
I can't let the comments of Bryce go, however. As a fellow Canadian, he is forgetting that the USA's "WMD's" are what allowed him to grow up snug and secure in a safe place, with the knowledge that Uncle Sam was protecting him AND paying the bill. This has, unfortunately, allowed Canada to slip into a morass of socialism and anti-Americanism. But, do not lose hope. There are many of us who GET IT! My father fought in WWII and would be horrified at the kind of crap Canada is dishing to the USA.

God Bless America!

Shawn, you are overlooking some facts in your assertion that Mr. Beniste is working hard with little to show for it.

On the contrary, with each month his net worth is growing. In 5 years (probably less), his car will be completely paid off; he might have to replace his car by then, or he might be able to postpone replacing it a couple of years. If his car lasts longer than 5 years, he gets to keep what he had been paying on his car loan -- pure profit, in other words.

In 10 years, the loan for the taxi medallion will also be paid off. And he won't have to replace the medallion. All the money he spends on that loan will be his to keep.

What he's doing is working hard now so that he will have a better life in the future. It might not look like he's making much progress at first, but 10 years from now he'll be much better off than he is today. Many people do similar things in their lives: putting off material pleasures in the present for much greater rewards in the future.

One final thing to consider, Shawn. The biggest obstacle in Mr. Beniste's path is an artificial barrier placed there by the government: the cost of the medallion. Take away that cost, or lower it significantly, and Mr. Beniste is doing very well indeed.

Kudos to the Comedian and Mr. Sullivan for pointing out that that bastion of Euro-socialism in the U.S., Washington, DC, puts fewer restrictions on cab-owning than NYC does. This is for purely political reasons, since DC is more than 80% African-American. A medallion system there would be construed [correctly, ironically enough] as a discriminatory attack on blacks trying to find honest work.

What a great story. I agree that the USA is a great country and I feel privileged to be an American. I do think it’s quite a stretch to link the impending attack on Iraq with Mr. Beniste’s story though, and even more of a stretch to equate the impending attack with what the astronauts were doing in space. To me and to virtually everyone I know, the Bush administration’s feverish attempts to sell this war to us represent one of the darkest periods in our noble history while Mr. Beniste’s story and our accomplisments in space represent some of the brightest and most inspirational.

Sir:

I can't compliment you enough on the eloquence of your prose, and your engaging style in turning a phrase, however I find there is little of substance in what you say.

Personally, I find it hard to romaniticize the efforts of Mr. Beniste, a Haitian immigrant of 14 years forced into what is the modern American equivalent of endentured servitude.

Beniste is not living the American Dream as an "entrepeneur" as you prefer to call him, but subsidizing the American Dream for the crook who sold him a taxi cab licence for almost a quarter of a million dollars, the bank from whom he borrowed the down payment at unconscionable rates, and the dealership from whence his vehicle originated. It's taken fourteen years thus far to establish the privilege of being indebted to others for the rest of his life - this is what you call the "system working its magic"?!

So you say Mr. Beniste has lifted himself up via the free enterprise system of the U.S., and will be able to "lift his kids even higher". How wonderful. How will he be lifting his kids up when every waking hour, every spare penny he earns goes to pay for his mortaged life? Wouldn't it be nice if his children had a father to eat dinner with and play with after they came home from school? Maybe their mother works as well, ( no doubt as a night cleaner in a Chase Manhattan bank for less than minimum wage ), to support their "magic" experience of the "system", so they have no parental guidance whatsoever. Of course, they can't afford to live in Manhattan, so I wonder who this hard working hack's kids hang out with on street corners in the Bronx while their parents are working 12 hours a day to keep food on the table?

Isn't his quality of life, and the quality of his family's life paramount? Isn't that the real American Dream, the one impossible now for him to achieve? Certainly working as a "hack" 10 to 14 hours a day in New York city is preferable to working the same hours as a laborer in Haitian cane fields, but is it proper for established Americans and American institutions to take advantage of his integrity and honest efforts by exploiting him, just as the oppressors from which he escaped?

Please, tell me again; what was the "war" in Iraq "all about"? Money?

Mishka rules !

Boris rules !

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