Guess what? There's more than just "America". What I said not only apply to developed countries. Also, more than not the taxi driver is just a poor guy who pays the taxi owner to let him drive the taxi (or: the one making real money out of the monopoly is a rich bastard somewhere).

Except you're being naive in thinking this monopoly was set for the benefit of consumers. Nope. Don't be so silly. This monopoly exists not because "bad things happened" (how stupid that sounds!), but because bad people uses the government to grant a monopoly for them to explore other people. Start using your brain.