Your implication about economic protectionism being a net drain on society regardless of the classifiers could have been made without using a ridiculous example

Your implication about economic protectionism being a net drain on society regardless of the classifiers could have been made without using a ridiculous example such as Jim Crow -- the non sequitur of Jim Crow lies not with my response, but with yours. I can't and won't argue that "politically connected", "nepotism" or "random chance" are the best way of doing things, but "ambition", "ability", and "intelligence" play a non-negligible (at least non-zero) role in how much prosperity one can achieve in the taxi, real estate, etc. industries. Under Jim Crow style regulation, "ambition", "ability" and "intelligence" have zero impact on whether or not one can achieve one's fullest potential. "Right race" (a.k.a "random chance") is the only way to end up maximally successful under Jim Crow. Your argument that modern regulations are akin to Jim Crow falls flat with respect to how fungible the upward mobility is in the face of regulation.