by 2nd trick op
Railroading is. pretty much by definition, onne of those places where theoretical economics both demonstrate and clash with the imperfections of daily life.
Perhaps no better evidence of this exists than the fact that Ayn Rand, the libertarian/capitalist opposite of Karl Marx, wrote her best-known work,Atlas Shrugged, about a railroad. But Rand didn't know much about the culture of continuous regimentation and self-effacement that characterizes corporate life. Her working life was spent in Hollywood; the railroads have always been organized using the military model ... it would be hard to envision rwo industrial cultures more in oppostion.
A far better investigation of the private rail industry's role in an open and democratic society was prodced in 1971-72 in a series of monthly installments in a scholarly free-market economic journal entited the Freeman, published by a private foundation, and read mostly by academics and students committed to a free-market ideoloogy. The Foundation for Ecomnomic Education is still in existence, as evidenced below.
http://www.fee.org/
The work cited above, by Clarence Carson, was later published as "Throttling the Railroads", and became one of the priime sources of reference for those advocating (successfuly!) deregulation a few years later.
But my point in bringing up this work is merely that there are no quick fixes and overnight solutions, and the unstable nature of daily existence in an urbanized, post-industral society makes quantum changes, such as the adoption of a nationwide, uniform HSR system, highly unlikely. To cite one example, Mr. George Mathews and I are in fundamental disagreement on just about everything involving the role of the state in daily life, but I've visited his website, and hold a respect for the researh behing his arguments, even if we seldom agree.
That is what this site is really about ... intelligent discourse about subects too specialized to capture much attention from the weekly newsmagazines and public-affairs broadcasts. It's one of the most basic benefits brought about by the development of the Internet ... rational exchange of information about a subject too complex to be placed at one pole of the ideological battleground.
So lead on, gentlemen ... just keep it respectul. When I came here back in 2002, I was a lot more subject to the polarized attitude almost all of us hold when we start out here. Adapting things to what will work is the prime function of parliamentary democracy.
Perhaps no better evidence of this exists than the fact that Ayn Rand, the libertarian/capitalist opposite of Karl Marx, wrote her best-known work,Atlas Shrugged, about a railroad. But Rand didn't know much about the culture of continuous regimentation and self-effacement that characterizes corporate life. Her working life was spent in Hollywood; the railroads have always been organized using the military model ... it would be hard to envision rwo industrial cultures more in oppostion.
A far better investigation of the private rail industry's role in an open and democratic society was prodced in 1971-72 in a series of monthly installments in a scholarly free-market economic journal entited the Freeman, published by a private foundation, and read mostly by academics and students committed to a free-market ideoloogy. The Foundation for Ecomnomic Education is still in existence, as evidenced below.
http://www.fee.org/
The work cited above, by Clarence Carson, was later published as "Throttling the Railroads", and became one of the priime sources of reference for those advocating (successfuly!) deregulation a few years later.
But my point in bringing up this work is merely that there are no quick fixes and overnight solutions, and the unstable nature of daily existence in an urbanized, post-industral society makes quantum changes, such as the adoption of a nationwide, uniform HSR system, highly unlikely. To cite one example, Mr. George Mathews and I are in fundamental disagreement on just about everything involving the role of the state in daily life, but I've visited his website, and hold a respect for the researh behing his arguments, even if we seldom agree.
That is what this site is really about ... intelligent discourse about subects too specialized to capture much attention from the weekly newsmagazines and public-affairs broadcasts. It's one of the most basic benefits brought about by the development of the Internet ... rational exchange of information about a subject too complex to be placed at one pole of the ideological battleground.
So lead on, gentlemen ... just keep it respectul. When I came here back in 2002, I was a lot more subject to the polarized attitude almost all of us hold when we start out here. Adapting things to what will work is the prime function of parliamentary democracy.
What a revoltin' development this is! (William Bendix)