Speaking at a Morgan Stanley conference, Musk said the state of passenger rail in the US is "embarrassing."

Summary

Elon Musk called for privatizing Amtrak and the U.S. Postal Service, saying America should privatize “everything we possibly can.”

Speaking at a Morgan Stanley conference, he criticized U.S. passenger rail as “embarrassing” compared to other countries.

While Musk didn’t outline steps for privatization, he acknowledged it would require congressional approval.

His remarks align with Donald Trump, who recently suggested reviewing USPS privatization.

  • Viking_Hippie@lemmy.dbzer0.com
    23·
    8 hours ago

    he criticized U.S. passenger rail as “embarrassing” compared to other countries.

    He’s actually right about that but 100% wrong about why: US passenger rail is embarrassing due to

    • a pitiful lack of political will for public investment in it (in spite of the vast majority of the population being in favor),
    • billionaires like himself and others with competing interests spending ridiculous amounts of money lobbying against it
    • private and ridiculously under-regulated freight companies (such as Norfolk Southern of East Palestine catastrophe infamy) being allowed to privately own the tracks that tax funded public works projects built, and thus setting schedules and speeds that are not conducive to effective passenger transit.

    In short, the Apartheid Nepo Nazi wants to pretend to fix it by doing more of what ruined it.