The NYC model is rarely how taxi's operate.

My uncle was a taxi driver around the same time (maybe a little earlier?) and was paid a livable wage plus benefits.

>"There are so many drivers available that it's an owner's market," said Edward G. Rogoff, a professor of management at Baruch College who studies the taxi industry. "Drivers are competing for these low-prestige, low-pay jobs, which pushes their incomes down further."

You also missed the main part of the article. Simple stated there were too many taxi drivers. Now I don't know about you but if I were to have that many people willing to work for me its either the pay is good or working conditions.

This sucks because like the article mentions, it becomes an owner's market. On top of this it's also NYC. No taxi driver is gonna be able to afford many of the places they get fares from.

>"In '87, '88, you could make $100 a day, maybe more," said Sam Khan, a 37-year-old driver from Pakistan. But now, he said with a grimace, "maybe $60, $65."

Not all countries have the medallion system (or that system the way it works in parts of the USA), and in some places drivers felt they were paid pretty adequately the way things were, and so they reacted very negatively to Uber drivers showing up and undercutting them.

In places where medallion or similar systems were in place, most of the protesters tended to be medallion owners. Who may or may not themselves be drivers, but even if they were were probably still deriving significant income from non-owner drivers renting their cars and medallions.

They're more like landlords than employees.