[malandrew]

No, they wouldn't have worked as taxi drivers. Maybe 1/10 of them would have ponied up the money for a medallion (assuming some corporations didn't already purchase many of the medallions in the market to be able to extract rent). The rest however would have one fewer option.

Taxi drivers have earn like 30% less relative to before Uber, but there are 10 times more drivers that now earn about the same as the taxi drivers. That's a massive net growth of opportunities to earn money.