[K0SM0S]

Problem is, that rarely happened because govs are generally bad (not skilled / trained) at running businesses. Pretty much the opposite.

To expand a bit; an ideal system, IMHO, would be a hybrid "state-backed but citizen-controlled" entity (half-way between nationalized and publicly traded) wherein shareholders involve citizens but not govs official (who have their own agenda, etc.); this is to maintain a sane separation between "the things belonging to citizens" and "the affairs of the State as a government").

It also follows a fundamental (but long-forgotten) principle of democracy that citizens should be able to control (as in audit, not "run" executively) the public things. You'd expect such a hybrid entity to be run by good commanders of industry, typical board / CEO but vetted by some citizen-backed legitimacy, in the shareholder voting process (this is a mild / hybrid form of "election", which is too strong as it is for this hybrid entity, but worth the "backed by sovereignty consent" value).

[rodgerd]

> Problem is, that rarely happened because govs are generally bad (not skilled / trained) at running businesses

These are businesses that have been run so poorly they're begging the government to force citizens to donate them money. I don't think there's any reason to believe the private sector has any particular genius here.

[TeMPOraL]

I think there's a fair argument to make that running a profitable business isn't government's core competency. They operate under different financial constraints. At the same time though, we've overspecialized in the private sector. We have people so specialized in running a business that the actual thing the business does is abstracted away. Putting them in positions of control turns the business into a social parasite.

[rodgerd]

When we see that the US airline business is asking for a $50 billion bailout, having engaged in $45 billion of stock buybacks, it appears that the sector is dominated by owners and execs who are either completely incompetent at risk management, or really in the business of robbing the public purse.

[TeMPOraL]

I'd definitely say the latter. But that's not surprising, really. A lot of the entities I've heard of that do government contracting aren't there to deliver value, but to rob the government. Companies doing quality work tend to get outbid.

[aylmao]

There's plenty of services and industries that used to be private and are now either fully or controlled by the government, or have good competition by the government. Some examples in the USA:

- Firefighting [1] - Education - Broadband [2]

Outside the USA, many governments run other companies well enough too, from energy companies, to rail/transport, banking, etc.

[1]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_firefighting [2]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Municipal_broadband