Originally Posted by
Into the Night
Okay, let's look at some of these comparisons, since they exist in history in the United States:
* Wifi is privately provided for. You can walk into any McDonald's or Starbucks and use AT&T Wifi for free.
* Medical insurance is privately paid for. It was reasonably priced, until the government started meddling with it through things like ObamaCare. The ObamaCare insurance system is collapsing even now.
* One of the railroads build across the U.S. was built entirely with private funds, and operated the same way. The U.S. government built two other lines around the same time. This single private line was able to deliver freight faster and and at about 1/2 the cost of the government railroads. Much of this freight was grain going overseas. The federal government passed price control laws to force all railroads (including the private one) to charge a specific fee, and shut off exports of the grain.
* Passenger rail is impractical in the United States because people would rather drive or fly on private airlines. It is the aircraft that killed passenger service in the U.S. The only passenger service is now government owned, and it provides terrible service that is costly.
* Here in Washington, we used to have private ferries that would regularly cross Puget Sound. The State also had some routes, but wanted to expand. The private ferries were in their way, since people tended to prefer them due to their better service and lower cost. Washington did the same thing the federal government did to the railroads. One by one the private ferries failed, to be replaced by State ferries.
* Airlines are public transportation. They are privately owned.
Now to the things that government is authorized to do; maintain bridges, roads, and the postal system:
* Roads are not built by the government. They are improved by the government. Roads begin as paths, than cart tracks (dirt roads), then eventually become paved. These affect everyone, not just those that drive on them. Everyone can benefit, so most folks have agreed to give their State governments this authority. Related to this authority is maintaining the postal system, a function authorized to the federal government in its Constitution. In each case, materials to build those roads comes from private sources most of the time, and the roads themselves are built and marked by private companies that have contracted with the government.
* Bridges are part of building the roads, and again are built by private contractors in most cases.
* Public schools are a national joke, due to the interference from the NEA (an unconstitutional federal program). The illiteracy of graduates from these schools is well known. Private schools are doing a much better job.
* Healthcare is largely private. It is the best healthcare system in the world.
* Health insurance is still largely private, despite the attempts to unconstitutionally usurp the market by the federal government through ObamaCare.
* Private scientists are creating new theories for engineers to develop new computers, create and improve chemical processes, find ways of cleaning up and preserving the environment (that actually work!), improve cars, aircraft, trucks, locomotives, ships, and other vehicles, improve materials manufacturing for everything from plastics, to metal, to even wood. Public scientists are too busy scamming for some useless study and pushing the Church of Global Warming and the Church of Green.
The United States is not a democracy and has never been one. There are currently no democracies anywhere on Earth. The United States is organized as a federated republic. I'll take capitalism any time.
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