America has an extensive network of private, for-profit (and profitable) intercity bus services primarily serving lower-income people. It’s a great example of how the free market can provide an essential service without public subsidies.
Naturally, the socialists want to shut it all down.
In response to recent news reports about Greyhound closing bus stations (in favor of curbside pick up) and shutting down service to some midsized cities entirely, Jacobin columnist and Rutgers philosophy professor Ben Burgis advocates for nationalizing the company and running its buses on dedicated interstate lanes.
“A publicly owned intercity bus service with dedicated highway lanes could do for travelers what the US Postal Service does for letters and packages,” writes Burgis.
Travelers, like Postal Service packages, would “criss-cross the country cheaply and quickly,” says Burgis. This new government-run bus company would extend service to everywhere, he writes, and “like the USPS,” this government-run bus company would be “financially self-sufficient.”
That the Postal Service is “financially self-sufficient” would be news to USPS, which reported a $6.5 billion net loss this past fiscal year. Indeed, the Postal Service is currently shuttering facilities and raising prices as part of a 10-year restructuring plan meant to get it out of the red.
Hellbound and Down 