The railroads are losing money and are in the process of being taken over by the government. The automobile industry, on the other hand, spurred by competition from home and abroad and free to innovate, has made tremendous strides, introducing one innovation after another, so that the cars of fifty years ago are museum pieces. The consumers have benefited--and so have the workers and stockholders in the automobile industry. Impressive--and tragic, because the automobile industry is now rapidly being converted into a governmentally regulated industry. We can see the developments that hobbled railroads occurring before our very eyes to automobiles.
Milton and Rose Friedman, Free to Choose: A Personal Statement (New York: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1980) 193.
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