It goes without saying that every policy is contingent on a functioning government capable of protecting its residents from violence. You'd hardly expect the Un

It goes without saying that every policy is contingent on a functioning government capable of protecting its residents from violence. You'd hardly expect the United States to have the same problems as violence-ridden South Africa, regardless of policy. That said, I don't understand your reasoning. You claim that free-enterprise taxis are responsible for violence in SA. But if that government, according to your account, can't even maintain basic road safety, how could they possibly enforce a taxi monopoly? If they tried to set one up, they'd simply create a black market of cabs, which they'd have no control over. If anything that should be worse; "illegal" cabs would evade police and would not undergo whatever licensing/safety checks ordinary cabs get. (On a tangent, a state-enforced cartel is quite analogous to the dystopia you describe. Instead of private businesses using mob violence to "defend" "their" turf, the police enforces it for them. Same crime, only institutionalized, sanitized, and socially acceptable.)