Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Path: utzoo!watmath!clyde!burl!ulysses!mhuxl!houxm!houxz!vax135!cornell!uw-beaver!tektronix!hplabs!zehntel!dual!amd!decwrl!decvax!cca!ima!inmet!nrh From: nrh@inmet.UUCP Newsgroups: net.politics Subject: Re: Ethics and others in libertarianism Message-ID: <1678@inmet.UUCP> Date: Tue, 7-Aug-84 08:08:43 EDT Article-I.D.: inmet.1678 Posted: Tue Aug 7 08:08:43 1984 Date-Received: Fri, 10-Aug-84 02:33:59 EDT Lines: 58 Nf-ID: #R:mit-vax:-250100:inmet:7800117:000:2545 Nf-From: inmet!nrh Aug 6 22:54:00 1984 >***** inmet:net.politics / unc!howes / 11:43 am Aug 4, 1984 > >That seems like a non-sequiter to me. As I remember, the railroads *used* >to be privately owned and the government stepped in because they were >attempting to dump off their passenger traffic as they couldn't make a >profit on it. Your memory is correct, but hardly supports the idea that private railroads were unable to provide good passenger service: As the campaign against the railroads mounted, some farsighted railroad men recognized that they could turn it to their advantage, that they could use the federal government to enforce their price-fixing and market-sharing agreements, and to protect themselves from state and local governments. They joined the reformers in supporting government regulation. The outcome was the establishment of the Interstate Commerce Commission in 1887.... The real threat to the railroads arose in the 1920s, when trucks emerged as long-distance haulers. The artificially high freight rates maintained by the ICC for railroads enabled the trucking industry to grow by leaps and bounds. It was unregulated and highly competitive..... .... The increasingly rigid rules prevented railroads from adjusting effectively to the emergence of automobiles, buses, and planes as an alternative to railroads for long-distance passenger traffic. They once again turned to the government, this time by the nationalization of passenger traffic in the form of Amtrak. [Milton Friedman, Free to Choose, Chapt 7] >I believe that the railways which provide the best service >are historically state-run. Well, that's a nice thing to believe, I suppose. I'd love to see what you regard as "proof" for such an assertion. >Deregulation of the airlines, while bringing >down prices on the most competitive routes, has jacked up prices for the >less popular routes (like from Raleigh-Durham to everywhere.) Isn't that just TOO BAD! It's reall nice of you to offer to have the state run the airlines, and RAISE fares for the rest of us to support your air travel. I think doing it at gunpoint (you go to jail if you charge free-market prices in a regulated market, remember) is a little tacky, don't you? >How in the >world do you have a non-monopolitic road system? How in the world DID we have a non-monopolistic railroad setup? But we did. >Do various private >owners set up competing roads along the same routes? Sometimes. Quite often, the railroads used to use each others tracks (at a fee, of course).