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The moral rot is exemplified by Jim Taggert and his scorn for the concept of profit.

Good start. But what about the train crew on the Comet? Profit is not a part of their world, but look at their behavior. This is a different kind of rot, and it shows up again and again in the book.

The parallel is the obverse of Jim Taggert's position, that change for the simple sake of change can be even more harmful.

This opens up an intersting idea. When Al Pearlman ran the New York Central, he would look at procedures on the railroad, and if one had been observed too long, he ordered that the procedure be re-thought. Pearlman feared any kind of stasis.

I don't see this in Foreign Policy as much as I do immigration and domestic policy.

Don't you see some of this in the Blame America First impulse? Our capitalism has made the world miserable, therefore we are at fault for things going wrong elsewhere.

Liberals think that people are too stupid to think for themselves and take responsibility for knowing what the date is.

Very good. I was looking for a lnk to government paternalism and the nanny state. And the fact that it was an elected official who did this.

But what about the train crew on the Comet? Profit is not a part of their world, but look at their behavior. This is a different kind of rot, and it shows up again and again in the book.

I've seen this attitude while (very briefly) teaching. The book uses the word 'indifference' in the first chapter many times. That's exactly what I found most teachers to be. The young, new, and excited ones, IMO, eventually also become indifferent because the socialist atmosphere in schools is stifling. The pay will be the same no matter how hard or how little one works, adminstration typically couldn't care less about academics as long as no waves are created, and a teacher coaching a sport is considered much more important than one that can, say, teach physics or calculus extremely well.

But what about the train crew on the Comet? Profit is not a part of their world, but look at their behavior. This is a different kind of rot, and it shows up again and again in the book.

I last read the book about six months ago, so I may be a little fuzzy on some specifics, but I remember thinking that the train crew that wouldn't move for lack of someone telling them what to do reminded me of stories of people who stayed in their offices in the WTC because no one had told them what to do.

I have always been puzzled by that. How do you not take responsibility for your own life and try everything you can?