I am a passionate supporter of free markets, where they exist, and a promoter of them where they don't.
This subject came to mind today as I emerged from the Tube at the station closest to my work, Temple. It's a little station and it is surrounded by little shops - a kiosk with snacks, a dry cleaner, a little restaurant, a fruit stand and a news chappie with several racks of magazines and journals. Nobody had to tell the owners that it would be a good idea to have their shops there, they just saw the opportunity and did it. If the state had been in charge, the dry cleaners still wouldn't be built, the kiosk wouldn't sell fags and the newsagent would only sell three titles (they'd all be left wing and would cost £8 a pop).
So that makes me feel good about the free market.
But then... one's argument occasionally runs into the contaminating influence of awkward facts.
We took the train to Cambridge on Friday evening. The post-work, weekend train out of London. This train has been busy ever since there has been such a train. Why oh why don't they put extra carriages on, and/or more frequent services? I'm sure that there is an answer for the failure of the market to service this need, I just don't know what it is. Do you?
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Related post: Random thoughts, where Stoo quite reasonably points to a contradiction in my free marketeering...
