"But we need Government to help us..."

While trying to explain the broad strokes of free market, i was challenged by a fellow employee. He was adamant in explaining that if it weren't for the empire, we wouldn't have the roads and highways that we have now. And you know what? He's absolutely right.

We'd have better ones.

Not long ago in the 20's-30's, roads and railways were built by private companies. These roads were beautiful, went to specific destinations and were built with the public in mind. Why? This is what happens with free market. If you want to market a product (even roads) it is advantageous to build the best and most efficient product possible because competition is everywhere. People won't buy your product if it is not good enough to buy.

Let me digress slightly.

When the Great Northern Railway was built, the owner of the company spent millions of dollars building impecable lines through navigable country side. The GN's lines could also be seen dotted with storage facilities for near by farmers to use. They spared no expense in creating a top rail line that could better benefit the consumer and the people who used the lines to transport goods.

Side note: When something like a railroad companies are built, the prices are more or less fixed (that's just the nature of big business). When customers are added, prices drop.

But being the best in business has it's enemies. Some will compete with a big business by immitating them and by building or selling a better product for a lower price. This is what drives prices down and this competion caters to the public. For your product to succeed, you have to be better than the others. We've saved millions thanks to company competition!

But there is another way to deal with competition. Many of the real "Robber Barons," turned to the government for help to deal with their competition. They lobbied and spent money on political parties and members of legislature to start regulating the Railroad. Why? You think they give a shit about safety or any of the hundreds of other things that they say the regulations support? Of course not! They are destroying the competition through legislation and price fixing instead of making their own product better!

So when the government provided subsides to companies to build railways, they paid them by the mile. The lines were build in a mad rush and they often went in loops or circles or over seanic routes to guarantee larger payouts by the government. What ended up happening? Dozens of railroads went bankrupt and they were given more subsides to start all over again.

In the case of the Great Northern, the government didn't need to get involved to make better lines. When they did get involved in the railways, they didn't care who they pleased because it was just free money to them. GN had to please it's customers to keep them and they kept their customers (until Regulations prevailed) because they had to produce a product that satisfied the masses.

Moral of the story?

We don't need government to do everything for us! Are we really so stupid (collectively) that we honestly believe that private companies could not provide a better quality product? Do they think that we can not sustain ourselves because we can and we DID until the dawn of FDR and his legion of thugs.

We need to stop trying to control the market and we need to set it free.