4 ms·
Having experienced the post-privatization decline of public services a few times I'm of the opinion that public transport, being a societal good, should be publ
by altacc 2y ago
Having experienced the post-privatization decline of public services a few times I'm of the opinion that public transport, being a societal good, should be publicly funded, publicly owned and funded well. Rail is especially expensive to maintain and profit from. Private companies tend to reduce maintenance to a bare minimum or less in the name of efficiency, resulting in the infrastructure declining whilst profits rise. Then the government steps back in to fund repairs to a critical service, indirectly funding the profits. That's definitely a typical capitalist grift for "too big to fail" companies. For those that don't like public money spent on infrastructure its a not a binary choice of to spend the money or not, it's inevitably when to spend it and how.
- cnity 2y agoThis. The $12B represents about 0.2% of the total US outlays for FY 2023. People tend to see the big number without considering the rest of public spending. You have to crack an egg to make an omelette. As a result the general population will tend to vote against these kinds of investments and then look back in 50-100 years and wonder why other countries seem to have all of the nice public infrastructure.
- andy800 2y agoThis project represents the worst combination: publicly funded but privately owned.
- altacc 2y agoIn the UK there was for a while the private finance initiative, where the government contracted private companies to provide services or development. The result, as concluded by the very private business friendly right wing government, was that is was a total waste of money, with no measurable benefit but costing billions extra than if the government had provided services directly.