Why should the loss be spread around? There are a number of rights and privileges you can purchase from the government, which are an investment risk. You go int

Why should the loss be spread around? There are a number of rights and privileges you can purchase from the government, which are an investment risk. You go into them with a hope of profit and accept a risk. For example, if I pay for rights to drill for oil somewhere and oil becomes obsolete, should I be reimbursed by my competitors? The upside potential of one of these medallions was unlimited. After buying it once, you could use it to make an unbounded amount of money. Part of that is accepting the risk that it might make no money. Otherwise you're asking the rest of society to subsidize a private interest.