SOCIALISTS KEEP LOOKING TO “UNEXPECTEDLY” NATIONALIZE: Nationalize Greyhound.

Jacobin, today.

If only there was a nationalized transportation system that has existed for decades that we could use as a benchmark to see how nationalizing Greyhound would likely proceed:

After posting historic spending deficits in 2021 and 2022, Amtrak is planning to spend more in fiscal year 2024 as federal funding expands to “unprecedented” levels.

Amtrak posted operating losses of $1.08 billion in 2021 and $886.8 million in 2022, far greater than pre-COVID losses, but is still going ahead with expansion. By comparison, Amtrak lost $29.4 million in 2019, the year before the pandemic hit.

The increase in spending was pandemic-related, according to Amtrak.

Amtrak asked Congress for a $350 million bump in funding for fiscal year 2024 to $3.65 billion.

The Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA) was signed into law by President Joe Biden on November 15, 2021. The law authorizes $1.2 trillion for transportation and infrastructure spending with $550 billion of that figure going toward “new” investments and programs. Amtrak will receive $85.2 billion via IIJA from FY 2022 through FY 2026.

Amtrak presses on with more funding and expansion despite historic losses, the Washington Examiner, May 19th.

And it’s curious that Jacobin doesn’t want competition for Greyhound’s services, when they exist as competition among the left for Salon’s longstanding goals of nationalizing every industry in the US:

—Salon.com, March 6, 2013.

—Salon.com, January 18, 2014.

Easy Riders, Raging Stasists, Ed Driscoll.com, February 22, 2014.

Salon.com, July 8, 2014.