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Michael Q. Lateforwork is probably not economically marginal in the same way most cab drivers are, so the incentives are not the same.

Similarly, most people who deliver pizza are not career pizza delivery drivers. A pretty big chunk of them are students. Their incentive not to wreak havoc isn't the loss of their pizza job, it's in not screwing up their lives and bankrupting themselves.

That said, you have a good point. And I'm not HN's official advocate for taxi medallions. I just want to point out that while it certainly wasn't the intention of the medallion system, or even its primary effect, artificially-limited medallions do create a scarcity value to them that incentivizes drivers to play nice with the rest of the system.

There are plenty of unlicensed cars out there, and there is a clear difference in how reliable they are.

I wouldn't vote against any sensible replacement scheme, and yours sounds sensible.




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