Pardon my rant, but I cannot IMAGINE a worse system of public transportation, than the taxicabs in Boston. Whoever dreamed up this system was probably a Marxist economics professor, who never actually had to ride in one of these abominations. Here, in brief, are the “high points” of this system. In Boston, to run a taxicab, you have to have a license (medallion), granted by the city. There are only a limited number of these medallions (I believe the number hasn’t been increased since the 1950’s), so as with anything, supply/demand determines the price. Currently, they cost around $120,000. So that means, anyone who wants to go into this business must borrow a lot of money. In effect, the owners of these medallions rent them out to independent operators. What is the result of this monopoly? Cab fares are extremely high! Also, the service is terrible-the drivers are frequently immigrants, many don’t even speak english! In addition, the cabs are poorly maintained and in most cases filthy! Most are falling apart-I once got in one, and big spring was forcing its way out of the seat!So this system combines the worst of communism and predatory capitalism-itresults in high fares, poor quality, and a lousy wage for the drivers. All the money goes to the medallion owners-what a stupid system! It is as if the city council decided to emulate a Stalinist-era shoe factory! I guess communism is alive and well in Boston!
So what is your question? Is it “Do I think communism is dead?” No, I don’t.
Does anyone else smell BBQ sauce in here?
By the power vested in me by the magic hat upon my head, I confer upon egkelly the temporary power of TLC (Taxi Licensing Commission) Grande Poobah!
Well, now what? If I read your post correctly, it seems that you take umbrage with limited number of medallions available. I am sorry that I can’t grant time travel privileges (I believe our newest mod, Chronos, gets somewhat peeved when people break the time/space continuum without his permission) to go back to the fifties and change things. But what now? Are you suggesting that the number of medallions should be increased?
If you do, than what allowances will you give to those who currently own a medallion? The medallion prices are so high because they are relatively rare. If you inject enough medallions into the market to make a difference in taxi-availability, you will significantly degrade the market price of the medallions. As these things were not cheap (I think they are over two hundred K in NYC) most owners had to take out a commercial loan to afford them. You can imagine the financial chaos it would wreak upon a small businessperson to suddenly have their assets devalued by a hundred thousand dollars or so. So what would you do to alleviate the problems with Boston taxis?
Open the market up to competition! It is quite obvious what is going on-the monopoly is benefitting a small number of people 9and corrupting the system).
Here is what I propose: You want to be in the taxi business; you have to have the following
-a clean, safe cab
-insurance coverage
-you must pass a standard test (you must be ABLE to speak english)
Presto-the problem goes away!
Why certainly! Couldn’t agree more. But my question back to you is how would you do that without screwing over a lot of people? To be honest, most medallion holders are not Louie Depalmas (or was he just a dispatcher? Can’t keep these things straight) who went to the bank and financed their medallions. Even those who were successful and now have a fleet of medallions, are you really suggesting bending them over a barrel and having a go at their livelihood? Doesn’t sound so capitalistic to me… actually sounds kind of revolutionary. Kind of… well, I had better quit while you still know I’m kidding 
Issuing a slew of medallions (or just licensing taxis higgledy-piggledy) will have the immediate and direct result devaluing the current medallions. And the difference between that and marching in to the capitalist pig’s offices, taking their property and redistributing it to the needy masses is…? (Sorry for the dramatic flourish conjured up there… I am reading a very dry DOE document right now.)
Anyway, I believe that I agree with you that something should be done. I don’t agree that the medallion owners have a monopoly (they are not singularly owned, nor operate as a cohesive unit) with some exceptions i.e. the DC-Flyer company has a monopoly on taxis leaving Dulles. So I return the question back to you – how do you propose to increase the number of taxis on the roads without being so swept up in your revolutionary zeal that you don’t see the redistribution of resources for what it is?
I guess the question is why is this in GQ. While we wait for it to be moved I will point out that many cities, not only in the USA but in other parts of the world, have this lousy system which screws everyone (I believe that is the definition of communism: “screw everyone”). Taxis may need to be licensed but keeping the license numbers low results in an artificial scarcity of supply. The argument that the licenses were made valuable by their scarcity and if more were issued the owners would suffer a loss is quite silly IMHO. So because things were done wrong until now we have to keep them wrong? I guess some kind of compensation could be provided and it could come from the sale of more licenses.
PS. If you think the system is screwed up in Boston, don’t ever take a cab in DC.
That is good ole capitalism in action…Isn’t it great?!
I have no knowledge or expertise in this area, but what the heck, I’ll throw out an idea.
How about this: Create new medalions, and give them to the present medalion owners. The medalions they now own might halve in value, but if they ended up with twice as many, that wouldn’t cause too much upset.
You’d have to make some sort of rule that if they couldn’t attach the new medalions to actual working cabs in a reasonable time they would have to sell them. That would allow new players into the market, and prevent the old players from manipulating the system by just keeping the medalions off the road. I also expect that some of them wouldn’t have the available capital to get twice as many cars on the streets.
This is not a General Question.
egkelly, please take some time to review the forum descriptions before deciding where to open a thread. You do this not infrequently.
I’m closing this thread.