OldTimer said:In the 1970s, the railroads were nearly threatened out of existence by the recent popularity of air travel. The government-owned National Railroad Passenger Corp., better known as Amtrak was created in 1971 and is still reliant on taxpayer money today. Conrail was created in 1976 as a merger of Penn Central (which declared bankruptcy in 1970) and a half-dozen other bankrupt railroads. Conrail fared better than Amtrak, even managing to turn a profit by the mid-1980s and eventually going public.
This is just one example of why government should not run a business..
Chrysler is another.. it failed once and was bailed out.. only to fail again.. this time it's assets are not even enough to cover it's debts and obligations..