SENATE BILL: Public Ownership Act of 2014 (Failed)

[bore]

My rule of thumb is if there is a natural monopoly and it's a public service then it should be in public hands, or, at the very least quasi public hands. So I would support nationalising railways, bus routes in cities, hospitals, schools and probably most power plants as well. What I can categorically say is I don't support nationalising steel and iron companies anymore than I support nationalising paperclip production. With that said, I'm offering an amendment:

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Also, why does the IDS get such lopsided representation? Is it some sort of bribe to yankee

[bore]

Aye

Maybe not every railroad, but most cities have only one station, and are built up all around that station, meaning there is one line in and out. I don't see how that can't be a monopoly

[bore]

Maybe not every railroad, but most cities have only one station, and are built up all around that station, meaning there is one line in and out. I don't see how that can't be a monopoly

That may apply to Britain but that is incorrect regarding the United States. Most of the localized freight traffic is handled by trucks and numerous shortlines that lease trackage from the bigger railroads. This allows for a competition between the bigger lines and ability to shift from one to the other simply by trucking it to the other terminal. Most every major metropolitan area has at least two Class 1 lines servicing the freight on a city to city, inter-regional and coast to coast basis. The only time this wasn't the case was for the twenty years that Conrail had a monopoly on New York City and New Jersey, but that is history by fifteen years and counting. CA is serviced by both BNSF and UP, the East by NS and CSX. Hell I got an X just two miles away from my house where CSX and NS trackage cross. The US railroads have long been based on competition and even as they have consolidated, that was maintained save for the Northeast where it was temporarily necessitated to have a monopoly and that was entirely because of a combination of gov't bureacrats refusing to allow the shuttering of profitless lines to nowhere and high operational costs, bottomline the gov't interference created the mess in the first place.

The private system works wonderfull for freight and where Gov't intervention has occured unnecessarily or to an excessive degree, it has led to severe problems and a near economic crisis. I cannot support the nationalization of frieght railroads under any circumstances.

Well sure, that's why I specifically made clear in the amendment that not every railroad had to be nationalised. Almost exclusively, I have in mind passenger services when I talk of natural monopolies.

[bore]

Nay

While I like the idea of nationalisation, even of things that my colleagues might view as extreme, like hospitals, this bill is too absolutist. I can't support the government buying any and every power company or minor transportation route.