>If you can't balance a company's finances without saying "we won't follow the law because it's too expensive" then you're doing something wrong. No, it's the

>If you can't balance a company's finances without saying "we won't follow the law because it's too expensive" then you're doing something wrong. No, it's the law that is wrong. It is corrupt, it is repressive, it is evil. First of all, you can't just "pay for a license" to operate a taxi in S.F., because competition is illegal. The industry is a closed, city-enforced cartel, and the taxi "licenses" -- "medallions" -- first of all, have a mandatory cap of 1,400 taxis, secondly, are "allocated to individual drivers on the basis of seniority on a waiting list": http://www.sfbg.com/politics/2010/02/24/feb-26-cab-industry-changes-radically http://www.sfbg.com/politics/2010/02/24/feb-26-cab-industry-... Your standard labor cartel. Even better. They are piloting a program to "liberalize" the "licensing" (that SFBG news story), which mean under certain conditions you can actually "pay for a license" -- at a cost of $250,000 apiece. Although, naturally, the government quotas are still in effect, and you have to be a S.F. taxi union member to begin with, and who gets to buy the licenses is in order of seniority, etc., etc.: >Under the pilot program, only certain medallions can be sold: those held by individuals 70 years old or older or who are permanently disabled and cannot fulfill the driving requirement. While no medallion holder is required to sell, only those who elect to participate in the pilot program have the option to sell at this time. The other set of medallions being sold are those in the possession of the SFMTA due to the death of a medallion holder or through revocation proceedings. The price for a medallion is $250,000. >The medallion buyers are subject to the same rules as other current medallion holders, such as the full-time driving requirement and driving a San Francisco taxi for at least four of the past five years. Under the pilot program, available medallions are offered to qualified buyers in the order of seniority on the waiting list and after that in order of the driver A-Card permit seniority. The decision to buy is voluntary, but interested buyers had to notify the SFMTA of their interest in participating in the pilot. http://www.sfmta.com/cms/apress/SFMTAAnnouncesFirstTaxiMedallionSale.htm http://www.sfmta.com/cms/apress/SFMTAAnnouncesFirstTaxiMedal... More about S.F. taxi licenses, from the cartel's own webpage: http://www.medallionholders.com/medallions.html http://www.medallionholders.com/medallions.html Many other union-infected city governments do the same thing. NYC stands out: its taxi "licenses" now cost $825,000 each: http://www.businessweek.com/news/2010-08-06/nyc-taxi-medallions-wheel-in-profits-rivaling-s-p-500.html http://www.businessweek.com/news/2010-08-06/nyc-taxi-medalli... Disclaimer: IANAL, all I know is what I read in news articles.