I got yer cheeseburger right here. For you, only $9.50 and be thankful you get it. That's the Amtrak cheeseburger, of course. I bet it's wonderful. OK, maybe not wonderful, prolly adequate. OK, OK, it's prolly awful but, but, but IT COST AMTRAK $16.25 TO PUT IT ON YOUR PLATE. That $2 Pepsi, assuming it's still in the can, is going to be just as good as the stationary Pepsi and Amtrak only costs it out at $3.40. Don't worry. They lose a little on every sale but they make it up in volume. Read it and weep: Remember, you .. you didn't build that. Now read that bolded passage again. They'd lose more if they stopped trying to lose money on food. Ain't centralized government grand?
Yeah, and the power grid. And most municipal water systems. And our military. And our National Guard. And the NOAA weather prediction infrastructure. And our public colleges. And most fire departments. And......
Yea and they build the Golden Gate Bridge! Oh wait, no they was against the Golden Gate Bridge, dang stupid federal government. The Federal Government build the electrical grid? No that wasn't them either? The Interstate was a rather good idea but wasn't that build mainly by the States in actual construction??? Federal Government does some things good, but most things esp those that involve a Service they seem to be at best, failures at. There is no reason to have Amtrak anymore if they ever was a good reason to have it. There isn't no need for most of the Federal Government exercises and programs which is the main talking point.
And the Roman Empire built the Appian Way and the Colosseum....so what? What has Rome done lately and when was the last time you saw the massive federal government run a project like Amtrak properly? Time to stop deflecting and start admitting that a "business" that loses $83 million dollars per year, just on foods and drinks alone, is a very poorly run venture indeed! That's government for you! Time to stop resting on your laurels so you can spew out disingenuous political b.s.!
And even those done well are done with stunning inefficiency. Real life anecdote: My son, CPT Smith USAF, has been sent to college under ROTC and then grad school while commissioned. I'd guess that DOD has spent a quarter million dollars on my son over the last 5 years. He worked productively for two years out of that five and not because he's a slacker. He's currently in an engineering contingent of two dozen that will likely not have any productive work sent their way for the next 6 months. He's going crazy out of boredom. There are literally no options for him to turn his office time into something significantly productive. He's able to publish the occasional article but that doesn't put better fighters on to the flight line. And this might be the best of Big Fed.
The public sector is ABSOLUTELY awful at running business. How can the large central government people see this, and still support giving more and more control and power to the fed? Unreal.
They did actually. Do you think the government bought all the equipment and hired all of the crews directly to build those? No. They procured professional services including attorneys to procure the land, they hired design professionals to design the structure, and they hired contractors to build them. All the government did was collect the money and reinvest it in infrastructure. Even after the systems were built, they hired somebody else to manage them. (the States for the highways and private company for the dam) Trying to compare those two infrastructure upgrades with the continual yearly losses that tax payers are responsible for because the government is trying to OPERATE Amtrack is a perfect example of why relative fallacies fail. Try sticking to the OP so we can attempt to have a logical discussion.
Actually, similar to dams and highways, these systems were constructed in the private sector and now operated by local government/private sector hybrids. Not federal government. National Guard is funded for and paid for by the States not the fed. All LOCAL and State governments pay for this. Is this the BEST the left has for this FAILED federally operated business? Just a bunch of relative fallacies? I don't know why I even come to this forum anymore. The left wingers here can't even produce a logical and rational debate anymore.