[grecy]

> You wouldn't ask the government to build their own roads or bridges

Bad analogy, because we're not talking about the building of bridges (software), we're talking about where they are built.

In your example, the government surely wouldn't pay to have a bridge built on private property where access could be rescinded immediately if the land owner was so inclined.

[paxys]

Why is the assumption that three letter government agencies are signing the same contract with Amazon as a random startup? Amazon built an entire new instance of AWS just for government use. I'm pretty sure they wouldn't be able to deny access on a whim.