http://www.entrepreneur.com/article/247772
I will start with a description of a taxi ride I once took in Luxembourg, from the terminal of the Luxembourg airport to my hotel. My hotel was literally visible from the airport - about three miles away. The cab fare was 60 Euro. But no tip was required. At the time, 60 Euro was about US$85. I told the driver this must be a mistake, but it was no mistake. The standard fare for anywhere in the capitol city was 60 Euro. The ride took maybe five minutes.
In Luxembourg, France, and most of western Europe, people with mundane jobs like taxi drivers, waiters, store clerks, and so on, for the most part make what we would consider a "living wage." I'm not sure whether it is by law or just by custom, but that's the way it is. Presumably getting a taxi license in Europe is just as absurd and expensive as it is in places like our big cities. The wages are nice for them, but makes some things much more expensive than we would tolerate in the U.S. Taxi rides being Exhibit A. Eating out in a restaurant can also be shockingly expensive, but tipping is minimal or non-existent.
So this climate is ripe for entrepreneurial picking by companies like Uber. Drive your own car, charge a reasonable fee, undercut the regulated taxis by quite a bit. Everyone is happy.
Almost everyone. Taxi drivers seem a little peeved.
As has been written about extensively by pundits such as Geo. Will, our state licensing laws are created with the theoretical purpose of ensuring the public's safety, but quickly become nothing more than ways to eliminate competition for politically-connected constituencies, who then thrive on monopolistic pricing.
The taxi drivers in France have a point: they paid dearly for their licenses and shouldn't have to compete with people who did not have to go through that process and expense. But the system itself is fouled up, anti-competitive, and corrupt.