Why Socialism III: Why Nationalisation Failed

When I was a boy, I went to school in the centre of Manchester there and back by train. It was both cheap and efficient and along with other “socialised services” like the local authority bus and tram services in my city, I could get anywhere I wanted to go very easily. And, of course, by then, the Labour government had nationalised all the Railway Companies, along with the Coal Industry and many other cornerstones of the U.K. Economy.

It was to be, according to Social Democracy to be a new Golden Age. Everything could be integrated for service to the whole community of our country, and without the profit motive could be directed for maximal and total service with great efficiency saving and the best possible combined use.

So, when I got off my train at London Road Station (Now Piccadilly) I was surrounded by this nationalised industry, and I could not but notice how this organisation handled freight.

Beneath the high-level station were extensive freight facilities, where tricycle tractors were attached to trailored loads from the trains, and constantly poured forth to deliver by road to the prescribed recipients. The goods came off the trains onto the roads in an integrated system. Why would that excellent system fail, and be replaced by multiple private companies all intent only on maximising their own individual profits?

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