You judgement is sufficient because you live in a world where taxi are regulated and as such any legitimate unregulated competition will strive to provide you the same guarantee you get with the regulated ones.

Now I'm not saying that the current regulation shouldn't get refreshed to consider what is currently available. But I'm amazed how people are just all or nothing about regulation.

You should want enough regulation so that a basic level of service is guaranteed. If that is not the case, it becomes too hard for customer to efficiently compare services. Like in this case, you should be able to compare taxi companies in less than a few minutes. If you need more than that, then chance are that you will stick with the reliable provider you know. Good competition happens when consumers are willing to try alternative.

Stockholm, Sweden, has a fairly unregulated taxi market in that pricing is set independently. This causes massive issues, specifically for tourists who have no idea what to pick. They end up paying $500 USD to go from the airport to town, a ride that is usually closer to $60-70 USD.

I guess what I'm saying is judgement is contextual.

That's why old regulations were good in old times but now that app can help you choose the best taxi at the best price this is not necessary.

Technology changes, people change so regulations must change with it.

We should version control all laws and regulations and we should debug them when we see people taking advantage of them in unexpected ways.

*can help you choose the best taxi [registered through that app] at the best price [available through the app].

Do not forget that Uber, TaxiMagic, etc. are still closed and managed environments -- they are simply more opaque, as a corporation is choosing the makeup of that market instead of a government entity.

Laws are already version controlled and debugged when necessary, where does that come from? Laws are amended and repealed all the time, in every level of legislation.

You can have multiple apps on your phone however i know very few people who would ask every taxi parked there how much they charge.

Plus the first one is a market place the second is just one taxi.

Hell I wouldn't mind if a government entity launched an app that did the same thing.

Sure, just make sure the taxis only drive on your private road.

Well, dividing the world in them and us is certainly not a very good beginning of a conversation :-|

But aside, the problem is not in the individual problem theirselves.

The problem is that an excessive deregulation is a part of a large process of demolition of the human rights of the great majority of the population.

Paradoxically, such huge problem is difficult to notice, because it requires vision.

In a world where there would be an excess of human rights and slow economy, deregulation would be fine. In such world, I would agree to liberalize the taxing and housing.

We're on the opposite side, though. So keeping deregulating is going to make the disaster we're already in even worse.

Don't assume you represent "the rest of us". You don't. Your choice is valid, but it's not mine, and that will be true for many others.

The irony with your statement is that your position is to make the choice for everyone in the market in a one-size-fits-all fashion.

His choice is to allow variety, competition, and customization so that more people get a chance to find the service that satisfies their needs.

I don't think anyone is saying to completely do away with all regulation in every instance - but have you seen the competitive barrier taxi regulation in most metro areas? It's specifically designed to prevent competition from those without massive resources. It's the stereotypical big guy keeping the little guy down with their million dollar medallions and special connections to lawmakers.

Upvoted for a fair point. Regulation must work effectively for it to deserve support going forward, and I am 100% with you when it comes to opposition to excessive or prevents-fair-competition type regulation in this kind of space. I'd probably prefer improved regulation than zero regulation though: regulate what matters, but otherwise step aside.

Taxi and hotel regulation IMO comes with a safety aspect which should, for example, protect lone or vulnerable travellers from harm (to a limited extent, of course, but some is better than none). Personally, I will accept a bit of restriction to my options in return for widely vetted service provision.

Let's take a look at that:

Quick, tell me which ISP provides fiber to the home with unlimited bandwidth? Only 1, so far, and only in limited areas. If it was ONLY our judgement that determined the quality, then I would be all for it. Unfortunately, there's sometimes a race to the bottom. Regulations help, to a certain extent, to control that. I know I wouldn't want open heart surgery provided by the lowest bidder.

Express kidnappers agree with you.

Of course, without a clause any taxi driver is free to kidnap and murder you! These silly liberals don't think things trough. /s

So as long I'm a taxi driver I can kidnap you?

Or do you actually believe that all these regulations are going to prevent somebody from kidnapping people?

I sincerely doubt that.