Re:2 Taxi Medallions Sell for $1 Million Each
by tptacek on Thursday October 20, 2011 @09:33PM
(#3137923)
Licenses and zoning permits are routinely structured to limit the number of certain kinds of businesses. The ostensible intent isn't to limit competition or protect incumbents, but that's obviously part of the ultimate impact.
It is possible to regulate for safety (with criminal penalties for breach of regulation, or possibly a bond which can be forfeited to the city, although the latter creates a barrier to entry and probably isn't a good approach) without creating artificial scarcity.
Commercial zoning regulations are quite different, because they relate to land, which is a naturally scarce resource; the scarcity is not created artificially by the government to keep the supply down and prop up special interest groups by keeping competitors out of the market.