From: Charles Hixson (charleshixsn@earthlink.net)
Date: Fri Apr 11 2003 - 15:59:09 MDT
Lee Corbin wrote:
>Charles writes
>
>
>
>>...
>>
>>
>...
>
>Same thing for the railroads. While, yes, the Union
>Pacific and Western Pacific made record time, they
>made terrible railroads, because they never intended
>to profit from the roads themselves. They wanted the
>government subsidies, which paid by the mile. On the
>other hand, James Hill built the Northern Pacific,
>and, since he intended for it to be a profitable line,
>it went slower and didn't use government money. It
>*didn't* eventually go bankrupt.
>
>So the problem, as is so OFTEN the case, was compulsion
>(the use of force) either via taxation---a form of
>stealing---or by making laws restricting freedom (as
>in the case of granting monopolies).
>
>Lee
>
>
Don't know about the Northern Pacific, but the Southern Pacific, if I
recall correctly from history class, demanded that the govt. give them
land along their route, and the govt. bargained them down to every other
square mile along each side of the tracks, in a checkerboard. Makes
sense, though, that they'd be SOMEBODY doing things soundly. Otherwise
there would be unmet needs that the govt. didn't thing worth subsidizing.
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