Just sent in a letter to TODAY newspaper.
Dear Sir/Mdm,
I refer to the question Mr Eric Sng asked in his letter, “Can cabbies refuse customers?”. Regardless of the authorities’ position, I believe the answer is obvious if we ask a more general question: Can people refuse a job offer?
A taxi driver offers a service for a price. In certain cases, the metered fare the cabby expects to receive is simply not enough to justify his perceived opportunity costs. Perhaps he is rushing home to see his children before bedtime, or perhaps he wants to maximize his earnings to better provide for his family. In any case, the cabby has judged that it is not in his interest to offer his services. Who are we to force him to do so?
When we go to the market, do we expect the meat seller to sell us his wares at a price lower than his costs? Do we expect our contractors to work at a loss?
While I sympathize with Mr Sng’s difficulty in getting a cab that night, the solution would be to offer additional payment to the driver, or to make a booking instead. Alternatively, he could wait for a taxi driver who decides that the benefits of the job outweigh its costs and voluntarily accepts it as a mutually advantageous exchange.
Yours Sincerely,
Daryl Yong
Of course I’m hoping that they’ll publish it. I think there’s a chance: It’s far less controversial than my last letter and they published that.
While it may seem like a trivial issue, I certainly don’t think so. The issue is really about whether we have a right to our own bodies: whether we have the autonomy to decide where to invest our labour. And it is this right that is so powerfully and disgustingly violated by National Service Slavery. But that, I think, deserves a post of its own.
UPDATE: My letter was published in full in the Nov 12 issue. How fun, haha.
