A Discounted San Francisco Taxi Permit Costs $150K

Or ... You could just let people go into business without paying for the privilege

San Francisco's tortured, tangled and famously ineffective taxi system was tweaked again Tuesday as the Municipal Transportation Agency Board of Directors approved a plan to give 200 of the 1,429 drivers sitting on a waiting list the chance to buy taxi operating permits ("medallions," in the arcane lingo of the industry) at a discounted price of $150,000.

The rest of the drivers will have to wait until medallions are put up for sale—and pay $300,000.