[ende]

The payment to the government is irrelevant. The point is that the government artificially restricts the number of occupational licenses.

[stormbrew]

I agree that it's not relevant who the wasted money goes to to the systemic effects, but it certainly implies a very different motive to say the government is taking that fee.

[ketzu]

That is not true. If they were non transferable, a limited supply would still stay at the governmental set price.

[aminok]

Competition for the limited supply of licenses would manifest itself in other ways, resulting in $200,000 worth of economic resources being used, on average, to acquire a license.

More importantly, the high market price of a transferrable license indicates there is a shortage of taxis relative to demand for taxi service, which has a cost for the economy.