Reading an article on electric buses, I was struck by these lines:
>> If the T [Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority ] chooses to use federal money to purchase electric buses, it cannot purchase any bus that comes from (or has parts made in) China. Yet these are the best, least expensive electric buses on the market today and for the foreseeable future. This China ban means that every US transit agency using federal funds is forced to purchase from one vendor, New Flyer.
This is a classic monopoly marketplace, and you don’t need a degree in economics to understand that such marketplaces do not offer best-value pricing. At a time when the T should be maximizing the use of its financial resources, spending any money on electric buses until we can make purchases of quality equipment in a competitive market makes no fiscal sense. <<
"Monopoly" has been a boo word for more than two centuries in US history, yet here we see one example of how US policy has created one, with all the extra expense for ordinary people and potential for abuse that private monopoly entails.
Look forward to Trump's trade policies multiplying this kind of expense and inefficiency in every corner of US life.
https://commonwealthbeacon.org/opinion/why-the-mbtas-electric-bus-mandate-is-a-bad-idea/