Burts typo in original headline
I’m of the opinion that regulatory or legal changes that cause financial harm are just as much of a “taking” as property taken under eminent domain, therefore individuals damaged must be made whole. I realize this is in Australia and so their legal and regulatory regime will likely operate under different realities, but the principal still stands.
Taxi licenses are a pretty shaky investment.
Almost as shaky as trading in your silver and gold for a bunch of zeroes and ones masquerading as money.
Prices dropped half a mil in NYC.
You bought a few years ago, you got ####ed.
That’s why you don’t buy THREE of anything that expensive.
She forgot to look up “diversify”
booo hooo the government wont allow your monopoly to continue.
Send your tears to Ma Bell!
I have never heard of a legitimate reason why taxi licences should cost upwards of a million dollars. If you are arguing safety, then that is best handled with yearly inspections and payment for those. Also, ownership of the medallion is separate from the license to drive, so it has nothing to do with drivers’ skills.
“What did I do wrong?” She asked news.com.au.
...
She made a bad investment.
Still, if the government required you to buy a half-million dollar license, and then after you bought it, started letting other people operate for free, they have treated you unfairly. There should be some compensation.
This has been a kind of mafia thing, where medallions or licenses were limited specifically to eliminate competition. Its good to see this come to an end. The free market is a wonderful thing.
I drove a cab a billion years ago, near Boston, and medallions were strictly limited, and went for 6 figures back then. You could drive for a company, but couldn’t go gypsy without your own mediallion.
It’s a perfect example of a government controlled market, and completely artificial, so, of course it fails.
“What did I do wrong?”
ANSWER:
1) You put all your eggs in one basket instead of diversifying.
2) You stupidly leveraged this insanely risky strategy.
3) You invested in a corrupt, rent-seeking scheme that was only profitable due to an artificial scarcity created by government fiat.
You bet that the government would continue to force a monopoly.
You bet poorly.
I owned Washington Mutual stock in 2008. It’s called risk. Derp
Article was intended for US readers.
She complains about paying for cancer treatment. She can get bulk bill medical effectively free (a popular option here in AU, so no out of pocket)
The medicine is probably on the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme, so just $36AUD ($25US per month)
Competition is a great thing