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Comment by nkkollaw | Hacker News Reader

Really.

I'm Italian and I oppose the horrible, horrible taxi lobby, as well as the equally horrible, extremely expensive service taxi drivers provide.

Luckily there's car sharing were I live, but I have no sympathy for taxi drivers (and it doesn't seem like they're getting a lot of love in other comments), or anyone who's in business solely because there are laws to protect their category, rather than offering a good service than people want to pay for.

Why is it fair that taxi drivers can provide a crappy service and get protected by laws, while other categories actually have do provide good service because they have competition and they would close down? Why not protect local restaurants from McDonald's, then?

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If McDonald's provided cheap food by ignoring the labor laws, would that be fair? Or any safety regulation on how food is preserved, etc. I could go on, but I think you get my point.

I share your sentiment towards our taxi drivers, but I'd rather ask our laws to change to be fairer than to advocate Uber's right to just break the law.

> Why not protect local restaurants from McDonald's, then?

Since when McDonalds doesn't follow the Italian laws and regulations? can you show me an example of McDonalds breaking Italian laws or food safety and regulations? Can you show me a McDonalds operating as an illegal restaurant?

You missed the GP's point. Their question was why are taxi drivers protected from competition but restaurant owners aren't? Why is there competition in serving food (a profession that also requires adherence to regulations, in this case food safety etc) but not in driving people around?

That's not what I meant with that sentence, you might have missed the point I was trying to make.

The sentence you quoted means: why not add a limited-number restaurant license that costs 200,000, without which you can't open a restaurant, to protect local restaurants? Why not create a law where Italian companies MUST produce the goods they sold on Italian soil in Italy instead of China, to protect Italian factory workers? Why not create a law that each book published MUST be printed and available at all local libraries besides released as an ebook to protect local libraries from closing because of the internet?

What's so special about taxi drivers?

Why can taxi drivers pay taxes based on a random figure they themselves provide without proof, while even if I charge a client €1 I must issue a receipt, and then KEEP IT IN PAPER FOR 10 YEARS?

I would love to hear any valid enough answer that would make me change my mind.

These may be worthwhile points to pursue, but it's not the jobs of the magisters to legislate from the bench. When you ask "why not create a law", this is a question to direct to the politicians you elect, not the magisters who apply the law.

It's not their job per se, but they don't blindly follow the law, they apply it.

There are many, many cases where a judge will go against a law and create a precedent, which most of the times will be followed in following trials if the situation is the same or very similar.

One thing: italian law follows civil law, not common, so precedents are not like in the US (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Precedent#Civil_law_systems).

It's similar, actually.

They still take precedents into great consideration, although they're not binding.

McDonald's does business in accordance with local laws,i have no problem with any foreign corporation which follow local laws same as their competitors

you don't have in Italy taxi apps with ratings, choice of cars and pretty much everything same as in Uber just legal? strange...

Taxi drivers are a lobby, like notaries.

There is nothing worth defending.

Signing a document at a notary can cost 1,000 and for no reason. In the States the same thing gets done for 50 by a notary (I can talk about that).

These are imposed monopolies. They must end. You will damage a few hundred thousand people for a few years, but 60 million (in case of Italy) would gain immensely, as well as future generations.

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