&gt; Funny how well it works in most other places to put shared infrastructure in the hands of the public.<p>You use the word &quot;funny&quot; in a way that suggests it&#x27;s a coincidence, but let me introduce a different explanation:<p>In a landmass controlled by imperialistic government, as the USA is today, &quot;public&quot; and &quot;government&quot; have little discernible overlap.<p>That may explain why public services (I&#x27;m thinking especially of health care) work so well in present-day Europe but not in the USA.