Free enterprize in America has gone the way of the DoDo bird

When the police have nothing better to do than entrap a senior citizen for giving a ride home from the grocery store to a stranded lady, then the crime rate must be absolutely zero.....

MIAMI GARDENS, Fla. -- A man who said he thought he was just helping a woman in need is accused of running an illegal taxi service.
Miami-Dade County's Consumer Services Department has slapped Rosco O'Neil with $2,000 worth of fines, but O'Neil claims he is falsely accused.

The 78-year-old said he was walking into a Winn-Dixie to get some groceries when he was approached by a woman who said she needed a ride.

"She asked me, 'Do I do a service?'" O'Neil said. "I told her no. She said, 'I need help getting home.'"
O'Neil told the woman if she was still there when he finished his shopping, he would give her a ride. She was, so he did.
As it turned out, the woman was an undercover employee with the consumer services department targeting people providing illegal taxi services.

After O'Neil dropped off the woman, police surrounded him, issued him two citations and impounded his minivan. On top of the fees, it cost O'Neil an additional $400 to retrieve his minivan from the impound lot.
There are no prior complaints that O'Neil was providing illegal transportation for a fee.

O'Neil claims he was just being kind and providing a ride to a lady in need, and he never even discussed money until the woman insisted upon it.

Why in the world in America, would there be a law dictating that you cannot receive payment for a service if both parties agree to it? It's not like it's prostitution. There's nothing illegal or immoral about driving your car.

It's because the taxi unions and lobbyists have the state legislators in thier back pockets. This guy was just being nice, but even if he was asking for payment for his driving service, so what? What law was he breaking when both people entered into a mutually beneficial agreement?

The problem here is the imperial government will crack down on ANY unsanctioned free enterprise between two people because IT doesn't regulate and tax it. I'll be damned if this country doesn't slide further and further toward socialism every day. If there's anybody who needs a bullet in the head more than hand-wringing, government regulators, I can't think of who it might be.