If the protectionists had their way, technology would never advance. We'd still be riding around in horsedrawn carriages so the blacksmiths and carriage makers could earn a wage. We'd be using steam locomotives to keep the firemen employed. We'd be using candles for illumination to protect the candle makers, etc. That's not to say there shouldn't be *some* protection to give people some time to adjust, but adjusting to changing realities is just a part of life. The taxi companies have enjoyed their cozy little monopolies for far too long and I welcome a change.
I agree with your point here about protectionism in general. However, two different issues are rolled into one. Dumping is the other issue.
Dumping is the process of selling below cost to kill an industry, then, with the competition dead, you control the price.
For the purpose of discussion, here we are not talking facts and real numbers but made up just for discussion of dumping:
- Country X can manufacture steel at 20% cheaper than Country Y.
- Country X subsidize and export steel to Country Y so it sell at 50% Country Y's cost of manufacturing.
- Steel plants in Country Y cannot compete, it starts to close
- Infrastructure to support steel plants in Country Y starts to wither and dying as well.
- Country Y totally lost the factories and infrastructure to product steel.
- Now Country X increases price to a point where it controls the market (enough but not enough for Country Y to restart from scratch)
Now back to the real world.
In my view, protection against dumping is a good idea. Otherwise, industries in a country could be picked apart. On an on-going basis, being economically isolated is not a good idea for any country
Things like health care shouldn't be free market, there is no (reasonable) alternative. Things like a taxi service almost ideal for a free market, many alternatives exist and competition benefits the consumer. A taxi service that is not profitable will go out of business and one that tries to cut too many corners to boost profit will lose either customers, employees or both and the situation will correct itself.
First, thank you for bringing in "other disruptions". My OP really wasn't to talk about taxi/uber per se. I was reflecting on how major change changes life. This 5 suicide in 5 month is just stunning to me to actually see it in the raw.
Health care is another one like the "$700k medallions". Government regulation made the disruption. Left to itself, there would have been some disruption but not as significant. When it was free-market driven, there was health
insurance, health
maintenance plans, and
catastrophic insurance. Now it is reduced to just health maintenance plans. You can't by health insurance against the unexpected - it must cover certain things even if it is expected and planned. Same for catastrophic coverage - it is near extinction. By-and-large, we are left with only costly health maintenance plan that covers everything - whether you need it or not.
* * *
But, let's just focus on disruptive technology and disruption - there is disruptive technology in the winds for health care outside of governmental stupidity. Health care, along with legal profession, are likely going to be significantly affected by robotics and AI.
Legal profession is almost entirely rule driven. Legal research used to involve a lot of "remembering" (finding) prior cases one can leverage on for legal precedence, or examples of innovative invocation of certain rules and regulations. AI can do wonder with that. What would happen to that profession when a "print out" basically outline the entire case strategy making the lawyer merely just a presenter in front of the judge?
What a doctor do in diagnoses as much direct judgement than symptom/pattern matching. He has this, his face shows that, his MRI looks like this... So it is illness X. So treatment is Y. Perfect for AI to handle. Oh, the best doc is in the south pole, but worry not, remote control robotics means Dr. Best can do your surgery by remote...
So this wave of disruption of easy-communication & technology will continue with a lot more yet to occur. It will go beyond sending X-Rays for overseas-doctor interpretation report, or annual income tax-return send overseas to be done. Heck. I don't even know what real value in-store Pharmacist has anymore in the USA that an AI machine can't do.