As mentioned in yesterday’s E-mail, President Jimmy Carter and Congress worked to deregulate several major industries during the late 1970s and early 1980s. These regulations set the table for the incredible economic growth of the 1980s and into the 1990s. As the following charts illustrate, deregulation produced significant benefits for consumers in terms of lower costs and increased options.
The following chart is from The Economist "High-Speed Railroading," July 22nd, 2010.
This chart is from Jonathan Chait and appeared in the The New Republic on August 5, 2010.
The following chart comes from Susan Carey and Scott McCartney and appeared in the Wall Street Journal on October 5, 2004.
As these charts clearly show, deregulation in a various industries has reduced consumer prices and increased competition in several major industries over the last three decades.
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For the safety of the skies (last graph), I wonder whether deregulation was the cause of the increased safety. The trend was already facing down since 1960 and the deregulation begun towards the 90’s
I don’t know that the argument is that deregulation made the skies safer, just that it didn’t do anything that negatively impacted it. Contra to many at the time and some since.