Taking the subway isn't socialist - the subway is just run by a vaguely socialist institution. The question is what sort of institutions create better results

Taking the subway isn't socialist - the subway is just run by a vaguely socialist institution. The question is what sort of institutions create better results (e.g. better subways): is it competitive, accountable ones, or monolithic, monopolistic, unaccountable ones? For example, you imply that a subway is better-managed by a government agency, but in NY at least the subway system was built in rapid order by a few competing private concerns between 1905-1940. In 1940 those competing entities were unified into a government monopoly, and the system has since stagnated for 80 straight years. See this visualization for evidence that expansion essentially halted in 1940: http://www.diametunim.com/shashi/nyc_subways/ http://www.diametunim.com/shashi/nyc_subways/. The current big expansion being undertaken is the 2nd Avenue line, which was literally on the planning maps in 1929: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Second_Avenue_Subway http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Second_Avenue_Subway.