Privatization Has Failed—And Trump and Musk Want More of It

America doesn’t have a funding problem—it has an execution problem. The government stopped building, corporations took over, and now we’re stuck paying more for worse results.

We outspend nearly every country in the world on critical systems—healthcare, education, infrastructure, and the military—yet we get mediocre results at best and complete failures at worst.

• We spend $14,570 per person on healthcare—almost twice what Switzerland spends what do we get for all this cash? Longer wait times, higher drug prices, and worse health outcomes than countries spending half as much.

• We spend more per student on education than almost any other developed country—yet we’re importing engineers and doctors while churning out conspiracy theorists instead of builders, doers, and thinkers.

• We built the Transcontinental Railroad (1,912 miles) in just 6 years now; California's HSR has delivered 0 miles in 17 years. Our infrastructure projects take decades longer than in the past.

• We spend more on our military than the next 10 countries combined, yet we were completely caught off guard when China tested a hypersonic missile.

The pattern is clear: as sectors consume more of our GDP, they deliver worse and worse results.

This ain't a budget crisis—it's a systems crisis. America's institutions have lost the ability to execute. And the private sector isn’t innocent here—the government didn’t just fail, it abdicated its role, handing the wheel over to corporations that drove us into the ground. It’s time to take that wheel back.

We Forgot How to Compete

Once upon a time, if private companies failed to deliver, the government stepped in and did it themselves.

That wasn't "big government"—it was competition. And competition makes everything better.

• When private electric companies refused to serve rural America, the government created the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA). Suddenly, private utilities had to cut prices and improve service to keep up.

• When private subway operators in New York stagnated, the city built its own lines. The private sector either improved or got replaced.

• When corporations wouldn't electrify the West, the federal government built the Hoover Dam.

• When private railroads collapsed, the government took over passenger service and created Amtrak.

Public competition isn't "socialism"—it's what built America. The TVA, the New York subway, NASA, Amtrak—these were solutions to market failure. When corporations failed, the government stepped in and got the job done.

The key point? Public competition kept private industry honest.

If private companies failed, there was a backup plan. That pressure kept costs down, timelines short, and quality high.

Today, that tool is gone. The government doesn't compete anymore—it just cuts checks. And private contractors know it.

Look at the pattern:

• California's High-Speed Rail project has burned through $100 billion without results. If private contractors can't deliver, why ain't the Army Corps of Engineers building it?

• UnitedHealthcare rakes in billions, yet millions remain uninsured. If they can't provide affordable coverage, why can't the VA compete directly in the marketplace?

• Defense contractors charge the Pentagon outrageous sums for basic equipment. Why aren't government shipyards and factories still making weapons themselves?

America needs to stop begging corporations to do their jobs and start competing with them again.

National Paralysis: Corporate America Is Lazy and Unpatriotic

What we've got now is a national paralysis that runs deeper than most folks realize. We’ve handed control of our essential systems to corporations that have zero incentive to build a functional society. Their only real mission is quarterly profits and shareholder returns.

The Fortune 500 ain’t patriotic. They don’t care about America’s future. Their job is to suck up as much money as possible while doing the least work possible. Why innovate when they can lobby? Why build when they can extract?

Think about it—these companies aren’t magical. Even the ones doing rocket science like SpaceX are standing on the shoulders of government employees. They're using the stuff we built, the stuff our grandparents and great-grandparents built, and selling it back to us for a 400% markup.

They review and consult. They think about thinking. They meet about meetings. They produce PowerPoints instead of power grids. They’ve created a whole ecosystem of busy work that looks productive but builds nothing of actual value.

AT&T didn’t wire America out of love for country. The railroads didn’t connect the coasts because they cared about progress. They did it because they had to compete—or get replaced. Without public competition, these companies will keep sitting on their hands, cashing checks, and delivering nothing.

This ain’t just inefficient—it’s a national security risk.

Breaking the Cycle: A New Model

So what do we do about all this? The answer ain't more government or less government—it's a government that actually builds again.

To hell with SpaceX—let's restore NASA to its former glory. Forget UPS and FedEx—let's supercharge the Post Office and make it the world's best logistics network again. If UnitedHealthcare can’t cover Americans affordably, then the VA and Medicare should expand to serve everyone. Stop begging AT&T to build fiber networks—let’s have municipal broadband in every town in America.

This ain’t just a left or right issue. Trump and Musk are selling a fantasy of private industry saving the day. The Democrats, even in places like California, keep cutting blank checks to failing corporations instead of stepping in to compete. The result? Billionaires get richer, America gets poorer.

To fix this, we need to:

• Rebuild government capacity to execute. Stop outsourcing everything.]

• Reintroduce public competition. If private industry fails, step in and build it ourselves.

• Measure success by outcomes, not dollars spent.

• Train people who can actually build things. Bring back vocational education and apprenticeships.

• Cut the red tape. Simplify the process. Hold people accountable for results, not for checking boxes.

• Force corporations to compete or get replaced. The only way to fix lazy CEOs is by threatening their business model. If SpaceX doesn’t deliver, NASA should. If FedEx overcharges, the Postal Service should step in.

America doesn’t have a funding problem—it has a competence problem. If we don’t fix it, we’ll keep spending like a superpower while building like a failed state.

And it’s time to rethink the role of government. It can’t be some distant bureaucracy—we need a government that feels like an extension of us. One that competes, delivers, and builds like our future depends on it.

Because it does.

If we want to control our future, we’ll need more than policy tweaks. We’ll need something big—something that shifts power back where it belongs. But first, people have to see the crisis for what it is.

People keep asking me what my solution is. It starts with letting go of the fantasy that corporations are infallible, that the market will magically fix everything, and that there’s nothing for us to do together as a nation. The truth is, when private industry robs us blind, we don’t have to take it. We can fight back the way we always have—by building. By competing. By proving that when the government actually works for the people, we can build faster, better, and cheaper than any bloated corporation weighed down by stock buybacks and executive bonuses. It’s time to stop waiting for someone else to fix it and take the wheel ourselves.