Private company ownership/operation of utilities vs. Government ineptness. What I have personally observed 1990 is a decline in the ability of either to maintain a competent staff. Harvard started pushing the concept that leadership and core competence are mutually exclusive and we went downhill fast.

Grifter

Is shopping at Amazon or Walmart a community need? Ask anyone that can say they do not need to shop at Amazon or Walmart and see what you will hear back. So, is that community need? If so, government should own Amazon and Walmart, and maybe CVS, Walgreen?

Strange, because our privately owned water company is 1/3rd the price of the publicly owned water company run by the county.

He's the strange thing: "No one should make a profit on things a community needs in order to thrive" Walmarts net profit for 2022 was $14bn or thereabouts. They would have paid a minumum of around 10% of their turnover in sales tax, so the government (across the US) collected over $50bn in tax. So despite collecting $50bn, Walmarts $14bn is the problem....

If they are regulated to only be permitted a profit margin slightly less than the average government bloat margin, then privatization makes sense. It makes even more sense when you take into account retirement funding et cetera.

How communist are you really?

There are some necessities of life that should not be owned or controlled by the profit motive.

The primary reason private companies should own utilities is that competition and profit motive drive efficiency, quality, lower prices, and better performance. Gov't only achieves lower prices by subsidizing with money acquired through taxation (either way you pay).