The members sue the government that propped them up.

The story makes it sound like these poor people who saved for years to buy a taxi medallion now have nothing to show for it and want just recompense. I call bullshit on that for a couple of reasons:

  1. Most of the medallions were owned by firms who then rented them out to individuals. Firms that were happy to use the force of government to enforce their little cartel. Excuse me if I don’t have sympathy that they now reap the whirlwind.
  2. People get wiped out when assets lose value – whether it be market or government causes. It’s only been in the last couple of years that my house in Tampa slightly came above water.

I hate to sound cold, but if you’re investing into a government-enforced cartel, I’m not going to weep when your investment loses value because an unjust cartel is broken. Anymore than I would weep for all the folks complaining about how their Stens would lose value if we could repeal the NFA. Particularly when the taxi cartel rested on its first government-enforced protection to keep prices high and service middling.