Americans Have Forgotten What Economic Freedom Looks Like

Buses in Thailand cities come every 2 or 3 minutes or you can get a taxi for $1 or $2 for local rides— Because they are so frequent, convenient and cheap, everyone uses the buses and taxis.

In Thailand, transportation is cheap because there are many bus companies and individuals with vans to offer transportation. It’s all open to intense competition as it's so unregulated. The result: you only have to wait 3 minutes for a bus in Thailand. And a bus ride is only 20 cents!  They are also cheap because buses, taxis and many automobiles use cheap CNG (compressed natural gas) in the big cities.

In so-called "advanced" societies, like American cities, whose mass transit bus services are city-run monopolies, you have to wait 45 min or more for any bus (in my town of Houston for instance). So, few people use them except the poor. It takes forever to get anywhere. And bus route coverage here is very, very limited. Then, we continue to build and widen freeway to handle all of the personal automobiles -- all because the bus system stinks.
There are far too FEW buses. It’s because local (or any) governments don't make capital investments well. And government-run buses are expensive. The fare alone is $2 or $3 for crappy service and taxpayers are likely FURTHER subsidizing pensions for overpaid unionized bus drivers! It's corruption. Oh, and taxi medallions are a government monopoly as well -- which increases the fares!
Meanwhile, we have 19 lanes on a major freeway (I-10) thru Houston and IT’S NOT ENOUGH! Imagine the $BILLIONS that 19 lanes cost??? No one can figure out the problem because we as a people have forgotten the power of economic freedom.  We can't take even advantage of cheap CNG that we have in this country. And we can't seem to understand the problem of government and government monopolies. They don't do ANYTHING well.

We have a lot to learn from Thai people. It’s not just their ability to adapt quickly to alternative transportation fuels, but Thai people know MUCH more about economic freedom than Americans or Europeans. There are micro-business stalls lining most streets. Not many Thai people are waiting for corporations to give them jobs; they just go set up a table to sell noodle soup, or trinkets, or tools, or clothes to the passerbys. They know they are responsible for themselves —like America used to be. There's no government programs to sign-up for.

Great things result from real economic freedom and high levels of competition. Most Americans now have no recollection now of what economic freedom looks like! We’ve been led to believe that various governments are the answer to too many things. But governments ARE often the problem. Big government are ALWAYS a problem. Americans ARE also a big part of the problem too. We’ve lost our way!