I was just reading an article about now New York City is planning to balance their budget. Among many other measures, this caught my eye: "The sale of 900 taxi medallions, which should raise $65 million every year for the next three fiscal years."

A taxi medallion is basically a license that allows a car to act as a taxi cab in the city. If you wanted to start your own taxi cab business in New York City, you'd have to buy a medallion from somebody to be legitimate. I was a little surprised at the amount of money that could be raised by selling them, and a little research turned up this: "In 1937, there were 11,787 taxi medallions. Since then, the city has issued just 400 new ones, and the laws of supply and demand have driven the price of each one up to $250,000 each." (Financial Times — April 8, 1999)

Corporations own the taxi medallions and lease the cars to poor immigrants who earn on average about $5/hour for an 11 hour day, leaving them no hope of ever owning their own cab. No wonder they're grumpy.