Stephen Hicks, Ph.D.

Timothy Sandefur’s new book

Should one be free to drive a taxi in Miami? Apparently not. The city government of Miami controls the number of taxi cabs and, as of 2002, had decided that only 1,856 taxi licenses shall exist. When a license becomes available, it is sold via lottery. But to participate in the lottery one must pay the city a nonrefundable $400 fee, and if one wins one must pay an additional $15,000 for the license.

So what is the state of the right to earn a living in Miami?

A very good question, which Timothy Sandefur takes up in The Right to Earn a Living: Economic Freedom and the Law. Sandefur is a Senior Staff Attorney at the Pacific Legal Foundation, a public interest law firm based in Sacramento, California.

Sandefur is also the author of To Pursue and Obtain Happiness and Safety, an excellent essay-length version of the themes expanded upon in his new book.

Sandefur spoke at Rockford College in 2009. Here is my interview with him based on his talk.

Count me a fan.

Timothy Sandefur on law and economic liberty

The Center for Ethics and Entrepreneurship has produced a monograph version of Timothy Sandefur’s To Pursue and Obtain Happiness and Safety, now available at cost at Amazon. In the monograph, Sandefur discusses economic liberty’s up-and-down legal fortunes, as the American founders’ original protections of productive freedom, property and contract rights came under attack during the Progressive era and the New Deal, leading up to our own era of mixed premises and politicized business.

Sandefur spoke last semester at Rockford College on the topic of “Market Entrepreneurs and Political Entrepreneurs: Some Legal and Constitutional Issues.” He is a Senior Staff Attorney at the Pacific Legal Foundation, a public interest law firm based in Sacramento, California, and the author of Cornerstone of Liberty: Property Rights in 21st Century America.

My two-part video interview with Sandefur after his talk is viewable at the Center for Ethics and Entrepreneurship’s site.