Why?
The taxi drivers are whining that their retirement savings are tied up in a single $300,000 license whose artificially inflated value is threatened by Uber. They chose to put all their eggs in one basket. They could have leased or rented someone else's license and invested the money they would have used to buy a taxi license in a more diversified (less risky) set of assets.
This is like someone at RIM/BB who put all their retirement savings into their company stock who complains that it's now lost 90% of its once whose artificially inflated value and is calling for government to make them whole. Or someone who put their retirement savings into a condo apartment during a construction boom who later complains that it's lost half its value when the building bubble eventually bursts. Dumb moves. Their responsibility.
BTW this problem with city issued limited edition taxi licenses isn't unique to this region. It's common to large cities from NY to Chicago to Toronto to Vancouver. None of those cities are taking the taxi whiners seriously either.
Uber’s success signals need to fix flawed taxi systems in Canadian cities
New York City Taxi Medallion Prices Keep Falling, Now Down About 25 Percent
The taxi drivers are whining that their retirement savings are tied up in a single $300,000 license whose artificially inflated value is threatened by Uber. They chose to put all their eggs in one basket. They could have leased or rented someone else's license and invested the money they would have used to buy a taxi license in a more diversified (less risky) set of assets.
This is like someone at RIM/BB who put all their retirement savings into their company stock who complains that it's now lost 90% of its once whose artificially inflated value and is calling for government to make them whole. Or someone who put their retirement savings into a condo apartment during a construction boom who later complains that it's lost half its value when the building bubble eventually bursts. Dumb moves. Their responsibility.
BTW this problem with city issued limited edition taxi licenses isn't unique to this region. It's common to large cities from NY to Chicago to Toronto to Vancouver. None of those cities are taking the taxi whiners seriously either.
Uber’s success signals need to fix flawed taxi systems in Canadian cities
New York City Taxi Medallion Prices Keep Falling, Now Down About 25 Percent