>>163
If there is no reason why you simply must take the fastest route, then you are free to take alternative routes, therefore competition.
The luxury resturaunt sets prices according to supply and demand. If the demand is low, the resturaunt owner might prefer to go out of business rather than operate at a loss, or they might lower prices temproarily to increase demand and minimize their loss. If they keep their prices constant, they're losing money. However, my personal belief is that when the resturaunt changes it's prices, it just doesn't tell you, making you think the prices never change.
There is competition between buses, trains, aircraft, personal vehicles, and occasionally boats. Whether you like it or not, they have to compete. It's just one more level of competition among many. Direct competition is not the only kind that will keep prices low. We could arbitrarly decide the level at which different places "satisfy different wants", for example, I want a grocery store 1 mile away, and only one exists, therefore it is a monopoly. The store 1.2 miles away satisfies a different want and therefore is not a competitor.
The government is a monopoly. The government is THE monopoly. Anything a monopoly can screw up, the government can screw up worse, and raise taxes to cover the costs, because it's THE monopoly of monopolies. It's the monopoly that decides which monopolies must exist and which must not. There is no monopoly above the State.
Show me a case where the government did something more efficiently than the market. As of yet I've never found a case of this.