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> Market equilibrium in a wholly deregulated taxi industry comes only when the desperate have driven out the good.

And that's kind of my whole "can't quite express what is wrong here" issue in a nutshell.



I've only had one 'bad' experience with Uber (driver didn't speak English properly and went to the wrong address and couldn't issue me a refund). I left a low rating and Uber contacted me out of nowhere and proactively offered me an apology and a refund. I also heard they're pretty ruthless about firing drivers with low ratings.

Meanwhile I've had a regular cab driver double-swipe my credit card and one who did a u-turn from the right lane without checking his blind spot and nearly killed us both.


That argument could be made for any service industry. Do all service industries require regulation? Aren't there some services we can just trust the consumer to choose?

I'm not saying that the use of automobiles doesn't require some regulation (although it isn't clear that commercial use requires more than other use), but this particular argument for regulation is weak.


I think most service industries where the customer may be subject to any sort of personal harm are regulated to some extent.




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