>They don't always work perfectly, but they sure can compete or are even market leaders. Most of the time it's because these companies are government-approved

>They don't always work perfectly, but they sure can compete or are even market leaders. Most of the time it's because these companies are government-approved monopoly (no other company can enter the market) or because they're heavily subsidised using taxes (no other company can enter the market practically because competing against someone who you fund at the same time is impossible and because the prices are below the actual expenses) and are actually losing huge amounts of money. Typically railways all around Europe are not profitable at all. Volkswagen is a very special case, but you're partially right. I'd say it's an exception to the rule though.