"What is to stop them from buying rickety old smog-producing cars and clogging up the city streets?" What's to stop cartel taxis from cutting costs in the same

"What is to stop them from buying rickety old smog-producing cars and clogging up the city streets?" What's to stop cartel taxis from cutting costs in the same way? I don't see the connection. And the glut of cabs will cause a downward spiral in quality of service. Why maintain a clean cab when it cuts into the profits, and your competitor is not doing so?" Brand value? Also, so what? So what if people who care about their wallets prefer a cab that costs half as much, even if its not as clean and shiny as your price-inflated central planning solution? (And it's not just taxis -- private mass transit, like vans, directly competes with taxi cartels and are likewise assaulted by monopoly enforcers. Price matters.) "But your cousin can come and make the same argument you are making about inspecting/training/certifying drivers: that it is to maintain a 'cartel' and deny access to other drivers." Because the intent of inspection, education, and certification is emphatically not to maintain a cartel, and unless the regulators are more-than-usually incompetent it will not cost anywhere close to e.g. $930,000 per person [1]. Nor would that entail explicit quotas/supply caps. The intent of the medallion system is explicitly and openly to act as a supply cap, to artificially inflate wages in the taxi industry. It has nothing to do with safety regulation, and it is silly to pretend you do not see the difference. [1] http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20110505006101/en/Medallion-Financial-Corp.-Reports-2011-Quarter-Results http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20110505006101/en/Meda... "The same government that you are scoffing at?" I'm not scoffing at government; I'm scoffing at a particular government policy which is corrupt, unjust, and an insult to freedom.