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Comment by dantheman | Hacker News Reader

I don't know what taxis you ride in, but i routinely ride in medallion taxis that either use GPS or their iphone to figure out where to go. I've also had some claim that they're at the destination until I pull out my phone and point to them on the map where to go.

If you want to regulate taxis, you can still do that - but there is no reason to limit the supply of taxis.

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The guy you're replying to just gave you a reason to limit the supply of taxis: regulating them is expensive.

That's not a reason to limit the supply of taxis. That's a reason to charge a fee for a taxi license that defrays the cost of regulating them.

Sounds like a reason to stop regulating taxis to me. If some sort of independent "certification" is needed, there's no reason the free market can't provide such a service. In fact, it such a service is actually valuable, it's almost inevitable that it would emerge.

> there's no reason the free market can't provide such a service

sure there is. here's a bunch of reasons: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Market_failure

Let me rephrase that, then:

> there's no particular reason the free market can't provide such a service, but there's no guarantee that it will.

Still, I stand by my assertion that, in general, if such a service is legitimately valued and necessary, a provider will emerge. No, a free market does not guarantee an optimal outcome for every individual, not does it guarantee that well get what we wish for. But free markets are still generally better than non-free ones. Pointing out that there are pathologies in full fledged laissez-faire doesn't count for much, unless one contends - and can prove - that (one or more of) the other options has no pathologies of it's own.

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