The Myth of the Robber Barons is a lecture by Professor Burton Folsom delivered to students attending the History and Liberty seminar on June 15th, 2010. Professor Folsom speaks on the role of key entrepreneurs in the economic growth of the United States from 1850 to 1910.
[...] 9:39 pm – Has transitioned into a discussion of high speed rail. Said he wants to give something like 80% of Americans access to high speed rail soon. He justifies this because “We’re the nation that built the transcontinental railroad.” I’m glad he brought that up…for those who actually know what happened in the construction of the transcontinental railroad, they know that it was a government-subsidized effort that failed miserably. The two companies involved built the tracks poorly, since doing so would earn more subsidy money. As their tracks crept closer to meeting each other, they started blowing each others tracks up in order to get even more subsidy money. Maybe we can expect similar examples of subsidy failure with Obama’s high-speed rail plan. (For more information on the transcontinental railroad, listen to this highly entertaining lecture by Burt Folsom on “The Myth of the Robber Barons.”) [...]
Looking for the unseen effects of economic policy is the beginning of wisdom. ... Go to blog
Recently many popular websites went black to fight the proposed SOPA and PIPA bills. Fighting censorship, however, is nothing new. ... Go to blog
It appears that spending on government education in one year was 324 times the amount companies spent on Super Bowl ... Go to blog
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What a great job tracing the development of government subsidies. Well researched!
11 December 2010 at 2:50 pm