The entire taxi medallion nonsense has always pissed me off. I'm glad Uber and Lyft exist even though they come with their own set of problems. I personally a

The entire taxi medallion nonsense has always pissed me off. I'm glad Uber and Lyft exist even though they come with their own set of problems. I personally am delighted to see these medallion prices plummeting. The entire concept of them was to use government force to say who has the right to work when and where. It has always been a very draconian thing. Companies that buy these medallions or individual cabbies that put money down toward a loan have all, for the longest time, operated under one simple premise - that the city they live in would protect their investment by strongarming anyone who tried to shake it up. Here's a good article: http://nypost.com/2016/07/05/city-lets-uber-and-lyft-cannibalize-the-american-dream/ http://nypost.com/2016/07/05/city-lets-uber-and-lyft-canniba... I don't feel bad for anyone mentioned in this article. "It was a good investment, on a yearly basis, averaging about 10 percent of the value, we were counting on that,” said the Peru-born Hervias, 57. “I told my kids I would give them each $200,000 for college." So this guy tried to leverage his licence to conduct business in NYC into paying for his house as well as not one but multiple college educations?! You must be joking. And they expect me to care about this sob story? And how about this woman: "She went to a recent TLC meeting and demanded that the city buy her medallion back from her at the price she paid for it plus interest. 'The city has its hand in the revenue grabbing on the back of medallions owners who were told this was an investment that they could own and control to be profitable,” said Robinson. 'That’s not only a lie. It’s corruption.'" I'm sure she would have considered it corruption and lying if she was able to continue to profit from government force, right? Uh, huh. She only has a problem because her "investment" turned sour. She expected the government to guarantee this so-called investment by the city dropping its iron fist to force people like Uber and Lyft out of the game. What ever happened to trying to lower the barriers of entry to support competition? Anything as simple as a one man operation in a vehicle that has an up front cost of over $1 million is clearly not competitive and totally protectionist by design. Plus, the city sets rates so there isn't even competition in the industry. I know, I know, it's for "consumer protection" because tourists were getting screwed. Uh huh. Look, I'm sure that's an issue in every city, but not having competition is a terrible idea. The government should not be setting prices.