...let's take another look at the outrageously corrupt practices of the old American railroad industry! All caps here are from "American Railroads As Investments" (1893)pic.twitter.com/6iEtMU11Xb
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Now moving on to a more nakedly corrupt practice: discrimination between individualspic.twitter.com/pDrAHaqKne
and closely related to it: discrimination between merchandise you will notice that the author--a Brit, visiting the USA--is scandalized by this flagrant corruption and contempt of the customers. This is a particularly American style of abuse.pic.twitter.com/NHxZAHn2um
one more in this vein: the abuse of free passes, which were handed out like candy to bribe the press, the government, the courts, and other businesses notice a common theme in these abuses: they all involve not charging customers for the actual costs of providing servicespic.twitter.com/hn2C7zIa4s
Notice also that they frequently miss the actual cost by being too LOW, rather than too high: discounts for freight at major hubs, discounts for favored customers and merchandise, free rides for reporters and politicians, etc...
...and also that in all cases, the customers who are most capable of paying are asked to pay the least, while those who are least able to pay have to make up the difference. Does any of this sound like a familiar mentality to you?
"...for a moment it seemed...the enemy would be crushed, as if the fortress, representing a capital of [2 billion] sterling, commanded by the best brains of the nation, protected by press and legislatures, but...a stronghold of tyranny, injustice and corruption, would perish..."pic.twitter.com/gM010b4O60
Remember what I said at the start of this thread? Here you can see it in action: every railroad somehow thought they were the only ones smart enough to cheat, and they believed this for so long that they very nearly drove themselves out of business.pic.twitter.com/lm1E5Kw9Fb
When they finally figured out they were gonna be ruined by racing to the bottom, railways elected instead to collaborate and extort high fares. Anything but run an honest business! America doesn't value hard work so much as it values getting paid, and this has long been the case.pic.twitter.com/FSLL3kez50
And with that, I'll set the book aside for today. More installments in the future. The psychosis which is present in many American industries even today manifested in spectacular form during the railroad era, leaving a permanent bad impression...
...but rather than going after the mentality, Americans found it easier to get rid of the particular expression of it. It was easier for us to give up on railways than to admit that there might be a wrong way to make a buck.
Is there anything Americans are actually competent at running?
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