Taxi medallions are corruption, pure and simple

In Boston as in most cities, the number of authorized cabs is kept well below the public demand for cab service. That is why the price of medallions — which have no intrinsic value; they represent nothing but permission to be in the cab business — is so obscene. Reasonable minds can differ on how much regulation the taxi industry requires. But medallions aren’t regulation, they are brute protectionism. They strangle competition, distort the market, and empower the politically wired. Medallions are why cab fares are so high — and why cabbies’ earnings are so low.

In the age of electronics, a smart phone can be used to charge a congestion fee to cabbies, and skip the medallion crap all together. Local politicians, and we elects them, simply are corrupt on this issue. Any city that still uses medallions should de-elect is council and bring charges of corruption.