About the author: <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henry_Manne" rel="nofollow">http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henry_Manne</a><p>Interview arguing insider trading should be legal: <a href="http://capitalismmagazine.com/2004/09/legalize-insider-trading/" rel="nofollow">http://capitalismmagazine.com/2004/09/legalize-insider-tradi...</a>
Obvious parallel with food trucks versus bricks and mortar restaurants. Funnily enough, I see pro-free-market candidates (funded by commercial property owners and restaurant owners) suddenly talking about regulations when their slice of the pie is threatened.<p>If you're a fixed restaurant and you have the opportunity to start a food truck in addition to your established restaurant, then fair's fair.
One important item discussed in the parable was the "slush fund", and how it succeeded in influencing the city council. This is the most corrosive aspect.<p>About 35 years ago the FBI's Abscam[1] public corruption investigation and sting operation brought down quite a few people, including Congressmen. My favorite excuse was from the Congressman videotaped stuffing cash into his pockets, and who later claimed he "was only pretending to be involved with the bribery" and "was conducting his own operation dealing with corruption and that the FBI was ruining his own investigation".<p>IIRC Congress was so upset about being caught taking bribes that they actually cut the FBI budget the following year!<p>Public corruption needs to be investigated and prosecuted more often.<p>[1] <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abscam" rel="nofollow">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abscam</a>
The only reason we don't have more actual stories similar to this is we don't know the inside scoop on what happens. We aren't a fly on the wall for such meetings.
TL;DR of the parable. Incumbent businesses will lobby and use professionalism as an excuse against individuals using their own resources to do ad-hoc business. Article makes an argument that this is bad.<p>I found this article as print out on the floor of a bathroom on an equities trading floor of Goldman Sachs circa 2010. It intrigued me and since then I have shared it with my friends and family, who seemed to have enjoyed it. I post it now because it reminds me of the arguments surrounding new car hailing services and on demand short term housing rentals. Our problems aren't entirely new, so why not leverage some wisdom of decades past when reasoning about them?
Url changed from <a href="http://www.nationalaffairs.com/public_interest/detail/the-parable-of-the-parking-lots" rel="nofollow">http://www.nationalaffairs.com/public_interest/detail/the-pa...</a>, which points to this.