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Licenses become valuable property when they become scarce. In every US municipality I'm aware of, the supply for both liquor licenses and Taxi medallions is ti

Licenses become valuable property when they become scarce. In every US municipality I'm aware of, the supply for both liquor licenses and Taxi medallions is tightly restricted. When you simply cannot get a new license by applying to the appropriate authority, it begins to make sense to pay tens of thousands of dollars to adopt an existing license.

gress 12y ago
That only answers why they are valuable, not why they are property. It is the issuing authority that intentional makes licenses into property by honoring them after they have been transferred. The quesion is, why are these licenses honored after a transfer?
- dragonwriter 12y ago
  There's two aspects to the kinds of licensing at issue: (1) Quantitative limits, and (2) Substantive requirements (which vary by specific license) that limit who can use the license. Letting licenses be transferrable is a way of limiting the public-agency workload in managing #1, because you then have less work managing a queue of pending-availability license requests at the public agency. Even where license are transferrable, the recipient generally has to submit paperwork to the agency and be approved that the meet the appropriate requiremetns related to #2 before they can use the license.
  - gress 12y ago
    Aren't your last two points contradictory?
    - dragonwriter 12y ago
      No, there's a difference between substantive review of applications with availability and queue management (and responding to inquiries) about applications pending availability.
      - gress 12y ago
        Really? It sounds like the agency has to check that the applicant meets the criteria for the license in either case. Where is the cost saving?
        dragonwriter 12y ago
        > It sounds like the agency has to check that the applicant meets the criteria for the license in either case. They aren't two alternatives, they are two different functions. Verifying that the applicant meets the criteria once there is a license available (given the quantitative limits) is one function. The other function is managing distribution of the limited number of licenses. The amount of work required by the public agency for the latter function (#1 in my original list) is greater when if the only way for that to happen is people to surrender unused licenses and then new applicants to apply to the issuing agency and be waitlisted until a slot is available than if a license that the current holder can be transferred directly to a new applicant.
        gress 12y ago
        This makes no sense to me. It seems like the major effort would be involved in examining the applicant is necessary in both cases, since that requires collecting individual information and exercising judgement. The difference between the two is simply and administrative choice of how the queue of available licenses is managed.. You have done nothing to explain why the amount of work is any different between the two cases. You have simply asserted that it is.
Permit 12y ago
I think the parent was asking why the licenses were transferable. I can't sell my driver's license to an aspiring driver, why should I be able to sell a taxi license or a liquor license?
- Jtsummers 12y ago
  Unless there's a test or certification, transferring them is more like transferring ownership of a car or house. You can't sell your driver's license because that license certifies that you meet the state's minimum demonstration of competence as a driver. A taxi driver has already demonstrated that, they just need permission to act as a taxi driver, which was deliberately made as a scarce resource. It's really more of a coincidence that they are both called licenses, they permit you to do something (drive cars, operate a taxi service), but one certifies competence, the other merely conveys permission. EDIT: Perhaps of interest, I went to Prince Edward Island last year and met some fishermen. Apparently their licenses can be sold (they effectively take out a mortgage given the cost) and are used as a sort of retirement plan by the fishermen that own them. But they also (according to them so I'm not sure the precise legal considerations or if it's convention) require that you spend some years working for licensed fishermen before you can purchase one. So sort of a hybrid between the driver's license and the taxi medallion model.

gress 12y ago

That only answers why they are valuable, not why they are property. It is the issuing authority that intentional makes licenses into property by honoring them after they have been transferred. The quesion is, why are these licenses honored after a transfer?

dragonwriter 12y ago
There's two aspects to the kinds of licensing at issue: (1) Quantitative limits, and (2) Substantive requirements (which vary by specific license) that limit who can use the license. Letting licenses be transferrable is a way of limiting the public-agency workload in managing #1, because you then have less work managing a queue of pending-availability license requests at the public agency. Even where license are transferrable, the recipient generally has to submit paperwork to the agency and be approved that the meet the appropriate requiremetns related to #2 before they can use the license.
- gress 12y ago
  Aren't your last two points contradictory?
  - dragonwriter 12y ago
    No, there's a difference between substantive review of applications with availability and queue management (and responding to inquiries) about applications pending availability.
    - gress 12y ago
      Really? It sounds like the agency has to check that the applicant meets the criteria for the license in either case. Where is the cost saving?
      - dragonwriter 12y ago
        > It sounds like the agency has to check that the applicant meets the criteria for the license in either case. They aren't two alternatives, they are two different functions. Verifying that the applicant meets the criteria once there is a license available (given the quantitative limits) is one function. The other function is managing distribution of the limited number of licenses. The amount of work required by the public agency for the latter function (#1 in my original list) is greater when if the only way for that to happen is people to surrender unused licenses and then new applicants to apply to the issuing agency and be waitlisted until a slot is available than if a license that the current holder can be transferred directly to a new applicant.
        gress 12y ago
        This makes no sense to me. It seems like the major effort would be involved in examining the applicant is necessary in both cases, since that requires collecting individual information and exercising judgement. The difference between the two is simply and administrative choice of how the queue of available licenses is managed.. You have done nothing to explain why the amount of work is any different between the two cases. You have simply asserted that it is.

Permit 12y ago

I think the parent was asking why the licenses were transferable. I can't sell my driver's license to an aspiring driver, why should I be able to sell a taxi license or a liquor license?

Jtsummers 12y ago
Unless there's a test or certification, transferring them is more like transferring ownership of a car or house. You can't sell your driver's license because that license certifies that you meet the state's minimum demonstration of competence as a driver. A taxi driver has already demonstrated that, they just need permission to act as a taxi driver, which was deliberately made as a scarce resource. It's really more of a coincidence that they are both called licenses, they permit you to do something (drive cars, operate a taxi service), but one certifies competence, the other merely conveys permission. EDIT: Perhaps of interest, I went to Prince Edward Island last year and met some fishermen. Apparently their licenses can be sold (they effectively take out a mortgage given the cost) and are used as a sort of retirement plan by the fishermen that own them. But they also (according to them so I'm not sure the precise legal considerations or if it's convention) require that you spend some years working for licensed fishermen before you can purchase one. So sort of a hybrid between the driver's license and the taxi medallion model.