Source: Independent Institute
by Walter E Block
“[A]s a matter of history, the BMT and the IRT were originally built, owned and operated by private companies. That ought to put paid to the notion that there is a ‘market failure’ going on in this sector of the economy, and that free enterprise, which has done so much for our prosperity … is an utter failure here, and, necessarily so. Nonsense on a pogo stick. If the marketplace is so great, why, then, are these NYC subways under government control? The market couldn’t hack it after all? Not a bit of it. These two subways were in the process of raising their fares from a nickel to a dime, and the government authorities were horrified! So, in 1940, they nationalized these entities, or, rather, municipalized them (soon afterward, they doubled the fare that had so horrified them when under private control).” (03/17/26)
https://www.independent.org/article/2026/03/17/historical-lesson-bay-area-transit-crisis/