Shank A Bitch 3 Day Six: The Handsman Cometh (10/71 Alive)

Shankvote: Seedy

The socialists and communists propose to cure poverty by seizing private property, particularly property in the means of produc­tion, and turning it over to be operated by the government.

What the advocates of all expro­priation schemes fail to realize is that property in private hands used for the production of goods and services for the market is al­ready for all practical purposes public wealth. It is serving the public just as much as—in fact, far more effectively than—if it were owned and operated by the government.

Suppose that a single rich man were to invest his capital in a rail­road owned by himself alone. He could not use this merely to transport his own family and their per­sonal goods. That would be ruin­ously wasteful. If he wished to make a profit on his investment, he would have to use his railroad to transport the public and their goods. He would have to devote his railroad to a public use.

And unlike a government agency, the private owner is obliged by self-preservation to try to avoid losses, which means that he is forced to run his railroad economically and efficiently. And also unlike a government agency, the private capitalist is nearly always obliged to face competi­tion—which means to make the services he provides or the goods he sells superior or at least equal to those provided by his com­petitors. Therefore the private capitalist normally serves the pub­lic far better than the government could if it took over his property.

Looked at from the standpoint of the service they provide, the pri­vate railroads today are worth vastly more to the public than to their owners.