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NATIONALIZATION OF THE RAILROADS
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[quote]QUOTE: <i>Originally posted by joesap1</i> <br /><br />Did you read the Railway Post Office in the latest edition of TRAINS? <br /> <br /> There is a letter there from a gentleman in Georgia who is commenting on Don Phillips' column about the British railway system. Phillips expounds at great length that the British government has turned a once ineffective rail system into one to be admired. <br /> <br /> The gentleman from Georgia concludes his letter with a statement to the effect that if we unite and push for nationization of the railroads, we, too, can reach the pinnacle that Britain achieved. <br /> <br /> Has Great Britain really achieved success or is this just one man's opinion? <br />Consider that Britain has a national health care system that is paid for by the 17% Value Added Tax that is applied to every purchase. Their healthcare system is also one of the worst in the world. Without any incentive, very little research is done in Britain and they have very few new medical machines. <br /> <br /> In the seventies Jaguar was turning out poor quality automobiles as they were part of the conglomerate British Leyland. Jaguar bought itself out from under British Leyland and began building cars people wanted. They got too popular, I suppose, since Ford snatched them up. <br /> <br /> Bigger is not always better. The last thing we need is our corrupt, incompetent government taking over our free enterprise railway system! <br /> <br /> What do you think? <br />[/quote] <br /> <br />Joe, <br /> <br />Both Don Phillips and the Georgia Gentleman are about 50 years behind the times. Great Britian nationalized their rail system around WWII. They <i><b>de-nationalized</b></i> their rail system a few years ago into a privately held open access system, albeit by a not-for-profit entity. So basically they took a private closed access system, nationalized for 5 decades, then returned it to the private sector as a private open access system. The rail service providers are now a mix of private and public entities. <br /> <br />Therefore, I will agree with your last statement that nationalization of the railroads is a bad idea, <i>unless</i> they nationalize temporarily to consolidate the system, then de-nationalize it into separate private infrastructure and private rail service providers, although it would be a shame to have to go to those lengths to reap the open access benefits. Just convert to open access already and be done with it. <br /> <br />The idea of a nationalized rail network is an anachronism, but then again the same can be argued for the proprietary closed access system we have now. The former is a socialist relic, the latter an example of monopolistic fascism. Neither can claim the macro-economic benefits of true head to head competition among rail service providers that acrue under open access systems. The rest of the world is discovering the economic benefits of open access systems, although they had to stumble into it unwittingly after they scrapped their failed nationalized systems. I guess it is true in some instances - you have to go through hell before you get to heaven.
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