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Well, than the Germans have to vote for a more liberal government. But they did the opposite, the liberals just lost their parliament seats.

• aianus 12y ago
  Just because the government is elected democratically doesn't mean individual laws are just or reflect the will of the constituents. There's no incentive for the government to side with the consumers on this issue since politicians profit through taxi medallions, political contributions from taxi companies, etc and it's not a big enough issue for anyone to change their votes.
  • Xylakant 12y ago
    I doubt that there's a lot of political contributions from taxi companies. The market is very different from the US - in Berlin the 7000 Taxis are mostly owned by companies having anywhere between 1 and a handful of cars. A medallion costs the administration fee and can be freely obtained, they're more or less unlimited. Certainly, the cab owners are somewhat organized and have some influence, but the degree is much lower than that. Uber alone has more lobbying power.
    • WildUtah 12y ago
      Then Uber's prospects in Berlin aren't that good anyway. Maybe that's why they're willing to be so patient and fight things out in court. In US cities, the taxi companies are collecting monopoly profits and providing bad service. Their scam is protected from competition by strict nonsense regulations by local governments. The local governments support the taxi companies for bad reasons like corruption and ignorance. Uber is better because it is subject to competition and is not a monopoly. In a city with functioning taxi competition, Uber's only advantage is its software, its brand, and its network. Local companies could easily compete very effectively against that.
    • krrrh 12y ago
      This is such a key point that so many people are missing by getting caught up in "Europeean regulation = anti-innnovation" clichés. The German laws requiring adequate insurance and inspections are mostly reasonable consumer-protection regulations, and not nearly as protectionist as the taxi regulation in many US cities. It's actually a much more open and free market than in cities where Uber has had most of its success. It's rare that one can't flag down a taxi on a busy street within a couple of minutes in Berlin, and they are almost without exception clean modern cars with courteous drivers. The MyTaxi app has already brought regular Berlin taxis up to par with Uber for the smartphone-inclined. https://de.mytaxi.com/ https://de.mytaxi.com/
  • holri 12y ago
    The broader issue here is that Europe and especially Germany has a regulated market. The voters voted for that for generations. It is not only taxi but all sorts of professions that have similar or even more restrictive laws.
    • aianus 12y ago
      For any given regulatory issue, there is a core group of self-interested voters or political donators who support the regulation, and everyone else who doesn't care much one way or the other. This results in lots of protectionist legislation and regulation even if the majority of people are neutral or mildly opposed.
      • holri 12y ago
        The reigning CDU and also the in the past reigning SPD are well known for their protectionism and regulation. If voters would not like that they would have voted the FDP. This has nothing to do with corruption, but with Europe's and Germanies history back to the guilds [1] from the dark age. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guild https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guild