This is true of basically all regulated industries. Ever wondered by tradies are so expensive and hard to get? They’re regulated. They can charge a premium and offer bad service and GET AWAY WITH IT because they’re not exposed to open competition.

This brings me to the current situation where Taxi Drivers are demanding compensation for their loss of exclusivity in jurisdictions where Uber is operating. They’re demanding that the government compensate them for the loss of value in their licencing fees, and there’s legislation due to go before the NSW Parliament later this week to that effect.

Let’s think this through… the General Public were screwed over by the Taxi industry and the Government working together by regulating the industry, and now that the MARKET has done its job and a better and cheaper alternative has been found, the Taxi industry wants to screw the General Public AGAIN by forcing them to pay ‘compensation’ for their loss of artificial exclusivity in the market place…

To cut a long story short, we paid for the Taxi’s to have their exclusivity, and now they want us to pay AGAIN to compensate them for LOSING their exclusivity.

I say screw them. What’s the old saying? If you lie down with dogs, you wake up with fleas? Government Regulation is the ‘dog’, the Taxi industry are the ones waking up, and they’re going to have to deal with their own damn fleas, not make the rest of us pay for them!