I recommend joining and viewing the videos of American Rail Club.
https://youtu.be/-O0Kf1IHFkQ
https://youtu.be/03gA1xrnXWs
I disagree with the host's solution to the problems of US railroads. He believes that the answer is the free market.
So why do I recommend American Rail Club?
I like the host of the YouTube channel. He cares. He's also one of the few people out there who's knowledgeable about the railroad industry and he's willing to share his knowledge with the public. He isn't a "trolley jolly" train buff. He's as critical of the railroads shortcomings as I am, maybe even more so.
He's no corporate shill. He genuinely wants better transportation for everyone.
Thank you!
Now, let me spend a little time trashing my new friend. I don't really want to trash him. I only want to trash the free market idea.
The more time he spends looking at who's paying the bills for railroads, the more I think that he'll probably awaken to the fact that the free market doesn't put money into new infrastructure, only governments do.
The railroad company that built the high speed system in China is 100% owned by the government of the People's Republic of China.
The high speed rail system, in fact the entire rail system, in France is 51% owned by the government of France.
Infrastructure isn't profitable unless the government is paying a corporation for it.
I don't believe in free market solutions. I'm in good company, however. The current owners of the major freight railroads don't believe in free markets either. The list of free market non-believers also includes the newcomer, Richard Branson, the prime mover behind Virgin Trains USA /Brightline, operating in Florida.
In the UK, Branson made money the old fashioned way: Lucrative government contracts and British government subsidies. In the United States Brightline and Virgin Trains USA have enjoyed government subsidized bonds.
Are there stock and bond games being played? I don't think so. But if there are then they'd be following a long line of 19th century American railroad hucksters. America has long since reentered the Gilded Age of underregulated securities.
I also think it's okay to invest in stocks and bonds because the prices of securities have been divorced from the reality of earnings for quite some time, now. The federal government will do everything possible to maintain confidence in the stock market.
Fortunes were made by railroad barons in the 19th century from a combination of government contracts with the US federal government, stock market manipulations, and massive direct and indirect government subsidies in the 19th century.
Land grants to help genocide Native Americans and create captive farmers and towns men to squeeze and make profits for railroads was one of those direct subsidies.
Modern freight railroads enjoy a captured regulatory authority and tax subsidies. They support laws that have prevented the creation of any new, never-before-seen, freight or freight and passenger railroad since 1890!
All railroads are a type of natural monopoly, like a water, gas, or electric utility. But the regulatory regime on US freight rail companies has been loosened to a tremendous degree even in comparison to those extensively deregulated utilities.
The type of free market that the major rail companies demand includes no new entrants, fewer and fewer government regulations on abandonment of rail lines, self regulation of reinvestment in capital, squeezing rail workers as much as possible, and self-destructively loose safety requirements.
US railroads operate on numerous bridges built in the 1930's and tunnels built in the 1860's to the 1880's. Those are the two eras when the US Federal Government was footing the bill to build these vital but unprofitable major infrastructure items.
https://youtu.be/-O0Kf1IHFkQ
https://youtu.be/03gA1xrnXWs
I disagree with the host's solution to the problems of US railroads. He believes that the answer is the free market.
So why do I recommend American Rail Club?
I like the host of the YouTube channel. He cares. He's also one of the few people out there who's knowledgeable about the railroad industry and he's willing to share his knowledge with the public. He isn't a "trolley jolly" train buff. He's as critical of the railroads shortcomings as I am, maybe even more so.
He's no corporate shill. He genuinely wants better transportation for everyone.
Thank you!
Now, let me spend a little time trashing my new friend. I don't really want to trash him. I only want to trash the free market idea.
The more time he spends looking at who's paying the bills for railroads, the more I think that he'll probably awaken to the fact that the free market doesn't put money into new infrastructure, only governments do.
The railroad company that built the high speed system in China is 100% owned by the government of the People's Republic of China.
The high speed rail system, in fact the entire rail system, in France is 51% owned by the government of France.
Infrastructure isn't profitable unless the government is paying a corporation for it.
I don't believe in free market solutions. I'm in good company, however. The current owners of the major freight railroads don't believe in free markets either. The list of free market non-believers also includes the newcomer, Richard Branson, the prime mover behind Virgin Trains USA /Brightline, operating in Florida.
In the UK, Branson made money the old fashioned way: Lucrative government contracts and British government subsidies. In the United States Brightline and Virgin Trains USA have enjoyed government subsidized bonds.
Are there stock and bond games being played? I don't think so. But if there are then they'd be following a long line of 19th century American railroad hucksters. America has long since reentered the Gilded Age of underregulated securities.
I also think it's okay to invest in stocks and bonds because the prices of securities have been divorced from the reality of earnings for quite some time, now. The federal government will do everything possible to maintain confidence in the stock market.
Fortunes were made by railroad barons in the 19th century from a combination of government contracts with the US federal government, stock market manipulations, and massive direct and indirect government subsidies in the 19th century.
Land grants to help genocide Native Americans and create captive farmers and towns men to squeeze and make profits for railroads was one of those direct subsidies.
Modern freight railroads enjoy a captured regulatory authority and tax subsidies. They support laws that have prevented the creation of any new, never-before-seen, freight or freight and passenger railroad since 1890!
All railroads are a type of natural monopoly, like a water, gas, or electric utility. But the regulatory regime on US freight rail companies has been loosened to a tremendous degree even in comparison to those extensively deregulated utilities.
The type of free market that the major rail companies demand includes no new entrants, fewer and fewer government regulations on abandonment of rail lines, self regulation of reinvestment in capital, squeezing rail workers as much as possible, and self-destructively loose safety requirements.
US railroads operate on numerous bridges built in the 1930's and tunnels built in the 1860's to the 1880's. Those are the two eras when the US Federal Government was footing the bill to build these vital but unprofitable major infrastructure items.
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