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A comment on How much do you think it costs to make a pair of Nike shoes in Asia?. Parent comment

Re:How much do you think it costs to make a pair of Nike sho... by jdasdf on Wednesday April 09, 2025 @04:52PM (#43637838)
>Most of the stuff the UK is struggling with (transport, healthcare, energy) are "state capacity" issues.

None of those are state capacity issues.

Those are "State is pointing a gun at anyone who would fix them" issues.

Friendly reminder that 95%+ of the UK railway system was built by private for profit companies, with state involvement being primarily limited to not preventing it from happening.

All of these issues are 100% self inflicted by the state getting in the way.

All that needs to happen for them to fix themselves is to stop actively preventing private individuals from fixing them.

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Re:How much do you think it costs to make a pair of Nike sho... by Earw0rm on Wednesday April 09, 2025 @06:12PM (#43638607)
Those railways were built early on in urbanisation.

Do you honestly think private enterprise could raise the financial and political capital to build a new regional rail line through a major city like London or Manchester?

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Re:How much do you think it costs to make a pair of Nike sho... by Symbiote on Wednesday April 09, 2025 @05:34PM (#43638264)
Railways and electricity are run by private companies in the UK.

They've had 30 years to make it work, and have failed.

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Re:How much do you think it costs to make a pair of Nike sho... by pbhjpbhj on Thursday April 10, 2025 @11:00AM (#43644503)
They've "made it work", just the companies "work" is transferring funds to the shareholders/owners.
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Re:How much do you think it costs to make a pair of Nike sho... by pjc50 on Thursday April 10, 2025 @05:31AM (#43642252)
None of the original railways was possible without Acts of Parliament for compulsory purchase.

Conversely, full privatization of the railways with no restrictions would instantly result in all the rails within 50 miles of London being replaced with lucrative housing.

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