Taxi medallion fell in price around 2011, because the government increased the supply (consumers started screaming about high taxi prices - and trust me, as a Sydney-sider, they are ridiculous, and the service is on the whole, pretty shoddy. I challenge you to find anybody who will defend Sydney taxi pricing, or their service).<p>You don&#x27;t see the government compensating the taxi drivers for that - taxpayers would be up in arms.<p>It&#x27;s only now, that they have somebody external to demonise, that they can get away with giving our money to them.<p>At the end of the day, nothing was taken away from the taxi drivers - they still have exclusive rights to pick up from ranks, and of course, can still operate as taxis. It&#x27;s just, the digital age caught up with them, and they now have some real competition. A lot of the Uber drivers I spoke to, do this as a part-time gig (at least in Sydney) - they have a car, spare time, why not make use of it to ferry people around. Everybody wins.