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"Open Access" and regulation of railroad freight rates.
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[quote user="TomDiehl"][quote user="futuremodal"][quote user="TomDiehl"][quote user="futuremodal"][quote user="TomDiehl"][quote user="futuremodal"] <P>Yes it would, for the same reasons Standard Oil and Ma Bell were broken up by governmen action.</P> <P>Since none of you dared answer the question as to your collective preference of keeping Standard Oil and Ma Bell intact vs the government forced break up of these companies, I have no alternative but to assume that you all would have favored keeping those entities as monopolies. And that certainly explains your dogged attatchment to the anachronistic integrated monopolistic rail system.</P> <P>[/quote]</P> <P>Since nobody else has answered this, breaking up Ma Bell was a great example of government butting into business to make things worse for the consumers. When this happened, my phone bill went up, service went down, I was now responsible for maintaining the wiring and equipment in my house, I now had to pay for local and long distance calls separately, usually with two different companies.</P> <P>My preference would be for the government to have left the Bell System alone. I got better service at a better price from the "anachronistic integrated monopolistic" phone system. A great example of it not being broken in the first place, but they "fixed" it anyway.</P> <P>[/quote]</P> <P>Tom, you were born to be a serf.</P> <P>There's not too many folks in this world who prefer an economic feudalism (aka an economy dominated by monopolies) to a competitive market array, let alone have the guts to admit it. At least you are consistent.</P> <P>Anyone else have a hankerin' for Tom's *feudal nirvana*?</P> <P>[/quote]</P> <P>And you were born to be stuck at the starting gate, never moving beyond theory into the world of implementation or reality.</P> <P>In the example of Ma Bell, the monopoly provided the best service at the best price. The example I gave stands up, the government butts in and tried to change things for the sake of "competition" and we all ended up paying the price for it in higher phone bills to support more redundant management in the smaller companies.</P> <P>As I've said, I prefer real world examples instead of a "theoretical nirvana" that someone "believes" that a major change, supported only by theory, should be imposed on a system that already works well and has no real world facts to back it up. Our forum members overseas have already blown your arguments about how well it "works" in at least two of the countries over there. Government bailouts of the infrastructure are hardly success stories.</P> <P>[/quote]</P> <P>Tom, in the real world of telecommunications reform the break up of Ma Bell started an economic Mother Lode of technological innovations, price competition, service competition, etc., all of which <STRONG>would not have occurred</STRONG> if Ma Bell would have been left to her devices. Yeah, there's still a few [D)] out there who seemingly would prefer to go back to the days of land line rotary dial telephones (in basic black of course).................</P> <P>[/quote]</P> <P>In the real world, you should drop by sometime, the idea that the "technological innovations, price competition, service competition, etc" would not have taken place is pure speculation. And I hate to burst your bubble one more time (that's a lie, I LOVE doing it), but touch tone phones in colors other than black were available BEFORE the breakup of the Bell System. </P> <P>And just like your misguided "Open Access" theory, in the real world, the breakup of the Bell System caused my price for phone service to go up, as well as the complexity of my phone service. Maybe there is a small percentage of shippers out there that would get a slightly lower price for rail shipments, but the proof, just as in the questions posed to you at the top of page 10 in this thread, is still awaiting an answer. Having a bit of trouble getting out of the starting gate again?</P> <P>Somehow it brings to mind a common statement that strikes great fear into the people, "I'm from the government and I'm here to help."</P> <P>[/quote]</P> <P>Tom,</P> <P>You couldn't burst a bubble if you shot it with a .357 at point blank range.</P> <P>Your allegation that telecommunications options were better under Ma Bell is beyond laughable. It is competition that has brought most of the innovations in technology and service. Just because there are still a few brain dead Americans out there who by their own admission can't figure out their phone bill, doesn't mean the problem is on the service end, it means the problem is in your lack of collective brain cells and your unwillingness to get up off your lazy asses and go out and change your service provider if indeed you are unsatisfied with your current provider.</P> <P>Next you're gonna tell us that it was the breakup of Standard Oil that has caused your gas prices to double over the last 15 years.</P> <P>May I remind you for the umpteenth time that outside government run systems, OA in some variation is the standard in the real world of transportation, but for Canadian and US railroads. But of course, you keep calling OA *my* theory, so I guess that means I am in charge of the rest of the world by your definition.</P> <P>And yes, our current NA rail system is a government granted fiefdom, so your last statement IS apt.</P>
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