[Alberta's Child]

The railroad industry has long been subject to government oversight as a condition of some of its unique characteristics (the monopolistic business environment they enjoy with regard to many of their customers, for example). One of the unusual aspects of this government oversight is that the Federal government can prevent railroad workers from going on strike and force them into arbitration in the event of a labor dispute.

It's hard to argue that this is unfair, when you consider that the railroad industry would be non-existent today without massive government intervention and support in the latter decades of the 19th Century.

[BfloGuy]

It's hard to argue that this is unfair, when you consider that the railroad industry would be non-existent today without massive government intervention and support in the latter decades of the 19th Century.

It's not hard to argue at all. It's unfair, period.

What happened a century or more ago has no bearing on what goes on today.

And isn't it interesting how close we came to Communism even as recently as the Truman administration. Can you imagine our outrage if Obama ordered the army to take over the airlines?

[moonshot925]

President Truman deserves credit for being a REAL fiscal conservative unlike a few of our recent presidents. He raised taxes 3 times to finance the Korean War and defense buildup.

And because of that the federal government had enough revenue to pay for its expenditures and didn’t need to barrow.