re: #141 Great White Snark

i’m not at all certain private rail should be a thing, what I reject is the premise that private must be evil, or bad, or something. or that it’s not private if some government subsidy applies well.

Private should have no place in basic infrastructure like this, or fundamental services such as education or health care. This is why we have government—to govern.

In any private business there will always be perverse incentives to maximize profit rather than service to the people who need it. The Postal Service is a great example—one of the most efficient services in the world. If it were privatized like the Republicans want to do, only the largest cities would get mail service, smaller cities would pay through the nose, and rural areas would get none. Also, FEDEX etc., would lose the agency that carries all their stuff the last mile.

We all know what a disaster the privatization of schools is—health care is just as bad, we’re just used to it. We don’t need single-payer like Canada, we need single-provider, like the UK. Not “Medicare for all” but “Tricare for all”. This is the only morally defensible system.

Capitalism should be limited to providing luxury goods, period.