Here's a devils advocate take on it: Taxi regulation is as much and more about "Guilds", Ghettos, and outright racism. It's been used as a blunt instrument to k

Here's a devils advocate take on it: Taxi regulation is as much and more about "Guilds", Ghettos, and outright racism. It's been used as a blunt instrument to keep many people out of doing a simple, everyday activity that many view as a form of entertainment - driving around - for cash. The effect, if not the goal, of medallions has been to enforce the assumption that drivers are underpaid immigrants. The assumption of the driver as a criminal has lead to their mistreatment. The serfdom that medallion enforcement has created - Where drivers do not own their job, merely rent it from landlords demanding an increasingly greater cut - Has created the toxic environment that has allowed even awful competitors an advantage.