I often marvel – because I have no life – at the sheer magnitude of innovation which has occurred in the last 100 years. Someone who has lived to see his or her age climb to three digits can remember a world without almost all the innovations we take for granted today – to list them all here would be exhausting.

Innovation is the enemy of statists. Or perhaps more precisely stated, innovation that does not have it’s genesis in government is the enemy of statists. As a result, statist hate Uber.

I’ve written about Uber before, and I’ve written about Salon.com often – perhaps I should set my sights higher, they’ve been pretty easy pickings lately. This time they’re on record as saying "Uber must be stopped."

Why must Uber be stopped? I’m glad you asked. I read the piece and I’m still not sure. But the closest thing to an argument I can find is this, "Uber is the closest thing we’ve got today to the living, breathing essence of unrestrained capitalism."
There are some references to Uber’s questionable practices with regard to its competitor, Lyft. But the author’s real issue is that "the street fighting ethos of Uber isn’t going to let drivers unionize, and it certainly isn’t going to pay them more than is required by the harsh laws of competition."
So the author has an issue with capatilism, writ large – the free exchange of goods and services between willing participants. No one is compelled to use Uber – it’s not even available yet in my city – and no one is compelled to drive for them. But Salon sees a huge issue – Uber must be stopped.
They must be stopped because their market innovations have resulted in a service consumers want that is not yet regulated by the government.
There are some who proclaim the death of innovation, but I sense that the next 100 years will be as innovative as the last.
In the Uber vein I discovered today a start-up company whose goal is to transform the way often underprivileged citizens interact with their government. The company is called Sidekik.
"Within seconds of activating the Sidekik app, you will be connected through a video call to an attorney licensed to practice law in your jurisdiction. Every attorney on the Sidekik network will be well versed regarding your rights during a police encounter and do everything in their power to defend your rights as they interact with the officer on your behalf…Sidekik is important because it restores balance to a previously unequal interaction. Your rights are worth preserving."
I’m not here to promote the company, I’m simply amazed at the possibilities. If Michael Brown had this app on his phone, perhaps his encounter with police in Ferguson, MO would have gone quite differently. Services like Sidekik have the possibility to do more good for underprivileged communities than any government program the progressives can think up.
And that’s the real reason progressives can’t abide innovation – it illustrates just how ineffective government is at many of the things we’ve asked it to do. That’s why Uber – and Sidekik if it becomes popular enough – have to be stopped.