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I'm not familiar with medallion system, do you have to buy them per-car or per-cab-company?

In any case, 1 million is just, wow.

Per car, and also they are tied to the car, not the driver. So divers rent them for the day, or by the hour.

It's basically a government sanctioned monopoly. It doesn't even have the pretense of being about safety or anything like that.

Does it transfer to a new vehicle? Cabs put on so many hard miles that it seems like a really steep price for something that isn't going to last that long.

The medallion itself is physically attached to the cab, but since the medallion does not expire I'm sure there is a transfer process.

The medallion is a license to operate a for hire vehicle. IIRC, you can remove and re-attach it to as many different vehicles as you like.

It is exactly a government sanctioned monopoly, but there is definitely a pretense of being about safety. Like pretty much any "progressive" policy, you can find people (even on these frequent HN threads) defending taxi regulations under that pretense.

One per cab.

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