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SESD Sious Falls | Railroads are way different than most businesses in our capitalist system. They are basically regulated monopolies. That is why the Surface Transportation Board has so much control over them. They have gotten special privileges like condemnation rights and anti-trust exemptions in trade for increased regulatory scrutiny. Thus, RR's are about as far from a free market capitalist system without being government owned that you can be.
The tradeoff for their special privileges is increased regulation. And this is where I differ with the "free market crusaders" on this site. There is no free market in RR's. Try starting your own RR to compete with BNSF. It would take Bill Gates' type money and more. These are the barriers to entry into the market. Without the threat of real competition, what keeps the RR from being a Robber Barron? You guessed it, the government.
Given the special privileges given to RR's to operate in this country, their feet needs to be held to the fire. They cannot be allowed to treat this situation like it would be in an otherwise free market where you sell your services to the highest bidder. They need to haul the grain and the coal and the regular freight before adding more bakken oil trains to the line traffic. That will motivate them. And the government is the only one who can and should make this happen. | |
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RR's are basically regulated monopolies
