CONSUMERS DEMAND THE VERY CONDITIONS THAT GET THEM RIPPED OFF.

lators brought them to heel with a slow and steady accretion of taxes and rules that limited how much they could charge, who they could serve, how they could pay workers, and so forth. Every one of these was imposed by elected politicians in response to some perceived problem. The important thing for a politician is not that proposals actually solve supposed problems, but that they be perceived as doing so by voters.

Consumers, of course, complain about the end result: Heavily regulations make it hard for new entrants hood. They hate expensive, dirty cabs, but the first time someone is killed by a taxi driver, they demand tougher licensing and background checks, whether or not there’s evidence that this would have prevented the death in question, and whether or not they would really prefer to pay more for every ride in order to be 0.00001 per cent safer from extremely rare events. They loathe the cost of hotel rooms, but wouldn’t want their neighbours running a rooming house or a bed and breakfast next door, since it might “ruin the character of