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<DIV><FONT style="BACKGROUND-COLOR: transparent" color=#000000 size=2
face=Arial>From: Arie Folger <afolger@aishdas.org><BR><BR>>> Dear
Ovedim,<BR><BR>Pitchei Choshen Geneiva veOnaah pg. 269 wonders whether a cabbie
may<BR>solicit customers from a bus stop. Is it like recruiting customers from
a<BR>competitor's store, which is prohibited? One argument in favor of
allowing<BR>it - which, in my opinion, is unconvincing - is that bus stops are
not like<BR>store, but merely convenient place markers for customers to know
where they<BR>can flag a bus.<BR><BR>However, I can two other possible
distinctions that might make the practice<BR>permissible, though I am
unsure.<BR>1) the product taxi ride and the product bus ride are
fundamentally<BR>different services....<<</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT style="BACKGROUND-COLOR: transparent" color=#000000 size=2
face=Arial><BR>Kol tuv,<BR>-- <BR>Arie Folger,<BR></FONT></FONT></DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>>>>>></DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>This reminds me of an old joke which may be relevant. A man
comes home from work all red-faced and out of breath and his wife says, "What
happened?!" He says, "I decided to save two dollars so instead of
taking the bus, I ran home behind the bus." "You idiot!" she
replies. "You should have run home behind a taxi, you could have
saved TEN dollars!"</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>If someone came into a store and offered customers similar products for
much less money, he could be said to be undercutting the shopkeeper. But
if he offered a different product, and much more expensive at that, how is that
undercutting his competitor?</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>Related to this question of why taxis are so much more expensive than
buses, well, I don't know if buses in Israel are privately owned and operated
for profit, but here in Miami buses are run by the government and the fare
doesn't come close to paying for the cost of the transportation, which is
heavily subsidized by the taxpayers. Taxis, in contrast, are private
businesses. Perhaps someone here can tell me if hasagas gevul applies to
providing a for-profit alternative to a government service?</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>I remember the famous story of the Chofetz Chaim, who supposedly tore up a
postage stamp when he gave a letter to someone to deliver personally -- so that
the government wouldn't lose the money it was "owed." I never understood
that story because if you didn't use the government's service, why should you
have to pay the government anyway? Is sending a letter with a friend some
kind of hasagas gevul issue vis-a-vis the United States postal service? I
don't see it. </DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>OK but then you will say the issue isn't using a taxi instead of a bus,
it's the taxi driver using the bus stop -- built and operated by the
government -- for his own private use. Well OK suppose I told my friend,
"I have a letter for you to take to Israel, meet me at the post office and I'll
give it to you." Hasagas gevul? Or suppose I went up and down the
line of people waiting at the post office and said to them, "I can deliver that
letter for you at five times the price the post office is charging, but it
will get there quicker." Hm I think I see...yes, it might be a
problem.</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>But the question was framed as "whether a cabbie may solicit customers from
a bus stop. Is it like recruiting customers from a competitor's store, which is
prohibited?" Which implies that a private business (a taxi vs a bus or UPS
vs the post office) can in any sense be considered competition to a public
taxpayer-paid service. But can it?</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>If I am out walking and get tired, I can't trespass on someone else's
property and go sit on their lawn chair. But I can sit and rest at a bus
stop. Isn't the bus stop public property to be used however the public
wants to use it?</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT color=#0000ff></FONT><BR><FONT color=#0000ff><STRONG>--Toby
Katz<BR>=============</STRONG></FONT><FONT lang=0 size=2 face=Arial
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