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September 20, 1998 Dear Editor: Aptly describing the New York subway system as a "daily torture chamber," reader Joe Liccardo asks, "Whatever happened to those futurist dream cities we were promised decades ago with modern transit systems?" The answer: precisely the same thing that happened to the workers paradise that was promised to the Russians. Like other monopolistic socialized business entities in the US economy, the New York subway lacks the essential element that insures the creation of the best possible services at the lowest possible cost: private ownership, and its economic corollaries, the profit motive and freedom of competition. Imagine, as an alternative, what the New York Subway system would be like if it were privately owned by the equivalent of a Bill Gates. (Or, if you can bear it, what the computer industry would be like if it was owned and operated by the government.) Unlike politicians, businessmen don't create promises (or monopolies). They create values. Sincerely, Chuck Braman |