Consumers have a defense with private markets -- use the competition. The problem with regulated public markets, such as taxis in NYC, is that a consumer has little choice, thus, unless they want to spend hours of their time dealing with an inherited embedded and political bureaucracy, there's little alternative. It's like restaurants, the bad ones tend to go out of business eventually. But imagine if restaurants all sucked and they were enabled in their suck by a government imposed "medallion" system and a supply of those medallions not controlled by market demand but by the restaurant mafia themselves, then there isn't any alternative, so your stuck with inferior quality and impossible barriers to entry controlled by your competition. Removing barriers to competition is the absolute best way to improve a market. Prices drop, service has to also improve. Those that perform a bad service at a high price quickly die because, if I don't like it, I can easily choose a substitute. Restaurants are a great example. You certainly want some level of regulation, but only the minimum amount to protect the health of the public. So in the public transport area, background checks should be required, insurance should be required, safety inspections should be required, but silliness like taxi medallions ought to be eliminated. To be clear, I am not against regulations, but I am against market regulation. There is a subtle but important difference.