Posted on 01/03/2018 9:46:27 AM PST by MNDude
The bankruptcies of railroads were due to many factors, all of them government-engineered: “competing” with the railroads by building “free” road and airport infrastructure, and giving tax breaks to the “competing” modes while taxing the blazes out of the railroads chief among them; another factor was the infamous union “requirement” of keeping firemen employed after converting from steam traction to diesel locomotion. The railroads were attempting many measures to try and compete in spite of that, including some of the first genuine high-speed passenger rail projects (125-160 mph projected operating speeds) and high-speed freight (at speeds of 90 mph), but the government pressure from both state and federal levels proved to be way too much, even when the railroads fully dieselized.
So what was the government’s “solution” to bankrupt railroads that they deemed necessary? Government takeover, of course, by following Wilson’s USRA example and creating first Amtrak and then Conrail. Nowadays, the five big railroads that emerged thanks to their machinations (there were still about 30 Class 1 railroads about three decades ago, for comparison) are unwieldy near-monopolies, and not “natural monopolies” either. All passenger rail operation is firmly in the public sector; union rules and ever-increasing government regulations make it unfeasible for a private operator to even think of starting passenger rail as a business.
Typical of the government to portray themselves as the “savior” of a system they deliberately destroyed. Very Marxian.
“The Mob isn’t going like being taken off of the gravy train!”
Maybe they will tell their Senator, Chuckie Schumer, to do whatever it takes to get that project funded again - make a deal with Trump, agree to wall funding, whatever it takes.
Part of the art of the deal is understanding the forces at work on the other side (outside of the particular deal), and bringing them to bear.
Trump probably knows the same mobsters as Schumer, and can tell them that it is Schumer who is holding it up, and he can release the funds with a stroke of the pen - if only Schumer could be brought around to deal. (Or Trump could establish a new 500 man anti-mob task force in the FBI, and sic them the NY crime families.)
Push the right buttons on people, get the right responses.
“AND FIND OUT WHERE THE $4 TRILLION ‘STIMULUS’ FUNDING WENT”
Several years ago I stumbled across a searchable site for grants and funding of the Stimulus money.
What I found in my city were non-profit entities receiving $60,000 here and $100,000 there; most of the non-profits had ridiculous names I’d never heard of before. All of the addresses associated with the grants were located in residential neighborhoods in minority areas.
IMO, a significant portion of the stimulus was spread around to local level democrat political players via non-profits that have never been audited.
In 60 years NYS has lost almost half its House seats. After the last census we lost 2. Rumor has it 1 to 2 after the next one.
Maybe they could get California to pay for it, since they seem to think they’re a separate country.
Siphoned off to terror groups?
You think the “Big Dig” in Boston was expensive this would have been the Biggest Dig.
hmmmmm, That’s the Rat MOB,... RIGHT?
A billion here, a billion there. Pretty soon you have a lot of money.
yes...and they are even bigger $hitholes than before!
Good. What is to say New York would not declare it a sanctuary tunnel after it was built and house illegals in it
The reality is that government regulation is a two-way street, and the railroad industry enjoys benefits from this government intervention that most other industries could only dream about. I'll cite the following two examples of this: (1) the government's regulatory authority to stop a strike by a railroad union, and (2) liability limits for railroad companies in the event of railroad crashes. In fact, most railroad rights-of-way today wouldn't even exist were it not for a massive government intrusion in the "free market" -- in the form of eminent domain condemnations, military campaigns to clear Indians off the Great Plains, and the use of the interstate commerce clause of the U.S. Constitution to override state regulations that existed before the Civil War.
There's no getting around the fact that railroad industry was one of the most egregious manifestations of "crony capitalism" in the history of this country.
Ironically, the early efforts to establish a Federal highway system were based largely on a national policy aimed at reducing the influence of the railroad industry in our nation's economy. In essence, it was determined by many leaders in government and industry in the latter decades of the 19th century and early years of the 20th century that the entire industry had become too powerful. From the 1880s onward you had recessions and financial meltdowns in this country that were brought about by disruptions in the railroad system related to strikes, poorly-executed mergers and acquisitions, etc.
On NJ Transit, there used to be a parlor car on certain trains running between New York and Bay Head, sponsored by the (former) Jersey Shore Commuters Club; they required a fee on top of the regular train fare for people to ride in it. Their car got damaged by Sandy and was never repaired, and the club itself, which had been in existence for over 80 years and had started on the Pennsylvania Railroad, broke up four years ago.
How is it disingenuous given the extent of control government wields over the transportation sector? The results speak for themselves. There is no reason for passenger rail to be out of the private sector except for government control.
There are no benefits to government regulation. None whatsoever. It keeps a huge swath of the private sector out and keeps cronies in, and it sucks up taxpayer money and borrowed money to stay afloat rather than letting the free market dictate where, what and how much.
Railroads were not “crony capitalistic” at all, in fact. They were exemplary of the success of the free market—which is why they were one of the first targets of progressives. Nowadays they are certainly exemplary of crony “capitalism”.
Got to give Willie credit for being a true believer. But he could be annoying.
Absolutely!
How is this any different than what you would find in almost any other mature industry in the U.S. How many auto manufacturers do you see today compared to 1950? How many steel manufacturers?
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