> If Chicago cares about the cabbies, individual owners should be paid dollar for dollar the value of those medallions, even if no one else will buy them in th

> If Chicago cares about the cabbies, individual owners should be paid dollar for dollar the value of those medallions, even if no one else will buy them in the future. These kinds of markets have some interesting dynamics - carbon credits have similar issues. Basically, the government can set the initial price (because they artificially create the entire supply) but then the market takes over. It's very difficult for the government to set the initial price correctly (i.e., close to the eventual market price) I seriously doubt that there's an easy mechanism for cabbies to get the city to pay the pre-uber market price for their medallions. They would probably have to sue, claiming that the medallion gave them a guaranteed monopoly that the government failed to uphold. That will turn on exactly what rights the medallion is supposed to entail.