Interesting to see that this is a thing people have talked about before. I've thought of this as being obvious for a long time and brought it up often. Persona

Interesting to see that this is a thing people have talked about before. I've thought of this as being obvious for a long time and brought it up often. Personally I've found a sort of class divide in how people respond to the arguments. Working class people can generally easily see how the regulations work against them. Take taxis as the example of the day. Even now, in non-Uber cities, it makes sense for someone with a bit of free time to go ad hoc taxi driver. Glue a taxi sign to your roof and drive about. Except this is illegal, for reasons that are completely irrelevant to you personally. The middle classes wouldn't be the driver because they don't need to and probably don't have the time anyway. Generally they ignore possible cost savings and think about the tiny chance of meeting a serial killer or whatever. Loads more things really. Rich countries control commerce to an incredible extent - the free market is a complete and utter fantasy. Something as banal as baking cakes and selling them to passers by is illegal, presumably because way back when big businesses were cutting their flour and sugar with chalk. In a vague sense, almost every low barrier to entry market has been made illegal. No street sales is really quite odd.