Name a government program that does work

[muon2]

Here's another one: education. Overall, I've received a much better education from public schools than from private schools, after spending a roughly equal amount of time in each.

That is of course anecdotal evidence. In any event, private education is in many cases superior to public education. Surely, this is the case with higher education.

While it is true that the evidence is anecdotal, it is also anecdotal to think that private higher education is superior to public higher education. In fact at the highest level of education, the top public universities are held in the same esteem in their fields of expertise as are the top private universities.

Let me provide a government program that became wildly successful beyond its creators imaginings. At every stage it was funded and led by public institutions because the market didn't understand its value, or thought the entry cost was too high. Yet the private sector now profits greatly from this public-sponsored program. Of course you are using it right now -- the arpanet / internet / world wide web.

[muon2]

Here's another one: education. Overall, I've received a much better education from public schools than from private schools, after spending a roughly equal amount of time in each.

That is of course anecdotal evidence. In any event, private education is in many cases superior to public education. Surely, this is the case with higher education.

While it is true that the evidence is anecdotal, it is also anecdotal to think that private higher education is superior to public higher education. In fact at the highest level of education, the top public universities are held in the same esteem in their fields of expertise as are the top private universities.

When people talk about private vs/public school, I think they mainly are referring to high school and below. My theory is there are three main factors in determining how well a student will perform:

1. How interested the student is in learning.
2. How interested the parent is in their child learning.
3. How interested the teacher is in their students learning.

With public schools, you tend to get a mixed bag of all of these. With private, I think are likely to get a higher of the second at the very least, if not an improvement in the one and three. Also, when you have the second, I think the first is generally going to be higher(I know it's not always the case). With universities though, you really get much more likely to encounter both the first and the second at high levels - after all, this level of education is not mandatory, so those going are really likely to want to increase their education and are motivated to learn.

Though I certainly think the public school system has other problems on its own, I think areas where public schools don't perform well are likely to have high rates of students and parents who don't care much about education. It's not fair to blame the schools alone when the people who are using them aren't trying.

I agree that there is a significant distinction between K-12 and higher education due to the mandatory attendance in the former.  My comment was spurred by Emsworth specifically singling out higher education.

[muon2]

Stupid Southerners.  Still anti-railroad after your lack of infrastructure killed your chances in the War of Northern Smcking Down the South. 

For comparison, to get from Orlando, FL to Baltimore, MD by plane will take 1 hour, direct flight and cost $128/seat.  Much easier to keep the infant in your lap for that time.

Rail travel is simply inefficient for long range travel now, except on a few of hte high demand routes.

This is the key point. Rail travel is not competitive for time and cost for trips of over 300 miles. For the shorter routes, when using up-to-date equipment can be comparable in time to driving, and not so different than flying times if the entire trip from door-to-door is counted, since flying typically has a larger overhead in time at the terminal.

One of Amtrak's problems is that it is charged with running the long trips that are not going to be effective. Consider that a large state or region of states is the natural size of efficient service. The Northeast Corridor fits nicely to one region. So does service in the Great Lakes.

Amtrak could reduce its role to coordinating regional schedules where they intersect, but leave passenger rail operations to the regional operators. States in the region could fund them as demand dictated, and apply for federal grants as with any transportation project. That type of state and federal support is no different than funding that now supports airports, highways, and local public transit.