system
Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:
human
[Harry Potter] If flying carpets are banned by the Misuse of Muggle Artifacts office, why aren't broomsticks?

I mean both functionally serve the same purpose, and I fail to see how brooms are any less conspicuous than flying carpets, so why are you not allowed a flying carpet, but it's fine to ride a broom?
gpt
The official explanation is that you have to be a wizard (or witch) in order to fly a broom. But anyone could make one of these carpets fly.  
You don't want muggles flying around on carpets do you? it would be hazardous.

But the real reason's much more sinister. You should know that carpets aren't banned in all of the wizarding world. Just the UK and a few other european countries. And it was done to protect the internal broom markets.

Any idiot with even half a whiff of magical talent can make a broom, and though it won't be comfortable, it will fly. But even the most advanced models you can buy today will hold a candle to the comfort and performance of a good persian-made silk carpet.

To compare it to muggle standards, imagine your thunderbolt 2001 to be the equivalent of a Peugot 107. Whereas even the basic 1001 nights line carpets are the equivalent of a top-line Mercedes or Rolls Royce.  
The european broom industry just couldn't compete with the middle-eastern carpets. And so, faced with tons of forced layoffs and a rather sizable economic crisis the ministry, grasping at the straws of a few self-powered carpets, the kind anyone can use and issued a blanket ban on magic carpets. Shutting out Persia, Arabia and other large scale producers entirely.