Capitalism good, railroads bad
Rail barons in the 1880s (cartoon from the 1880s of a rail baron (Harriman Railroads) eating multiple rail tracks, vs US railroad map in 2026, vs Europe map of railroads in 2026 showing the difference. ‘Capitalism is good for the people’
19 replies
TBF Europe has been mostly capitalistic for a while now. Germany's national identiy is like half "we build cars" and yet it's the center of that gigantic railway cluster (which kind of sucks currently, because of the aforementioned "we build cars" identity and the capitalism).
Deutsche Bahn is great if you are in no particular rush ;)
Tbf, many of the densest countries on that map have been socialist for a while.
Sure, if we define "socialism" as "capitalism with a minimal welfare state"
Unfortunately way too many people actually define it like that. It makes discourse really annoying sometimes.
huh? name socialist country in Europe please
I assume they're talking about the eastern block, i.e. "they have been but aren't anymore". 1945-1990 is a longer time than 1990-2026.
yeah sure, but dropping such a statement and then bailing speaks volumes ...
True, that's pretty bad manners.
In which of these countries do the workers own the means of production?
The dutch railroads run on capitalism.
Musk and his kind are the top picture. The US will not benefit from his company’s tech. Socialist systems might, eventually.
Musk is a robber baron on a massive scale.
Not really defending our horrid rail system here, but there is a massive amount of rail line missing from the US map. I work in logistics, I do a lot of rail related work.
I see this brought up often under posts like this one, and it's usually lines dedicated for freight rail, whereas all of the lines in Europe are either passenger or passenger + freight.
I’m gonna go rewatch who framed Roger rabbit.
Sure would be great if the US map was all passenger rail.
Europe has a thing called solidarism, but capitalism starts to win here too...
And European trains go fast right? Tell me they go fast. I just looked up the train ride from philly to nashville, 33 fucking hours and I have to switch trains once. Its not even that far! Guess Im fucking flying.
Marseille to Paris 3h20 for 820km (510 miles)