Skip to main content

Professor Horwitz Analyzes The Law And Economics Of ‘Thomas & Friends’ on NPR

May 12, 2015

To mark the 70th anniversary of “Thomas & Friends,” NPR explored the economics of the railroad series and interviewed Professor Paul Horwitz, who analyzed the issue in a 2008 blog post after watching Thomas on television with his 2-year-old daughter while he was at home recovering from surgery.

Horwitz wrote:

What is the lesson of Thomas the Tank Engine?  It strikes me as being a pro-market show, but a genuine, Hayekian coordination-of-information free-market type of capitalism, with maybe a dose of TR-ish trustbusting spirit. Simultaneously, surely it is also a critique of the kinds of market imperfections that arise in a more oligarchical, monopoly-permitting market. Think about Sir Topham Hatt for a bit. He is a caricature of a robber baron, but he’s not simply an unrestrained successful capitalist in an open and competitive market, a Gates or Carnegie. Rather, he runs everything on the island of Sodor: the railroads, the towns, all other means of transportation, etc. He’s not villainous, exactly; but his tentacles extend over the entire economy of the show. On Sodor, Hatt truly controls all the means of production.

Horwitz told NPR, after writing his blog, he found a variety of economic views about Thomas. “If you’re libertarian, you can write about Sodor as a libertarian paradise. And if you hate big industry you can say ‘Down with the capitalist Sir Topham Hatt,’ and if you just want an economy that’s a little more personal in scale, then you can talk about that aspect of the show,” he said.

For more, read “Just How Do ‘Thomas & Friends’ Drive Sodor’s Economy.”


The University of Alabama School of Law strives to remain neutral on issues of public policy. The Law School’s communications team may facilitate interviews or share opinions expressed by faculty, staff, students, or other individuals regarding policy matters. However, those opinions do not necessarily reflect the views of the Law School, the University, or affiliated leadership.