Debate: Capitalism or Socialism
Side: Socialism

"I was pointing out that the interstate system was built by the private sector and paid for by the public sector. "Which did not require pointing out. Nobody said the job in question that the public sector did better was the actual physical labor of construction.Would it be profitable... that's up for them to decide. If society needs it, there is profit behind it. If society does not need it, there is no profit. We pay tolls, correct? Why would it be any different if the private sector had built it instead? This is the kind of incredibly over-simplified reasoning I always encounter from people who try making this argument. You may want to read up on what the costs are and how the benefits to society of the system are distributed.It is to the benefit of everyone, even those who do not directly personally drive on any one particular stretch of interstate in question, to have a well developed transportation infrastructure spanning the nation. You may not drive on it, but companies who provide you with goods and services transport goods across it, the people THEY do business with do the same thing, etc... having it there is a universal economic booster.So, that being the case, it is profitable from a national perspective, when all the benefits are aggregated, to have an interstate system. Which is why the public sector will finance the project. it is what we refer to as "in the national interest".Now, let's try it with the private sector, shall we?Yes, the stretch of I-40 between SF and Reno existing directly benefits me in terms of the impact it has on the economy of the region. I've driven on that road, personally, exactly one time in 12 years. So how are you planning on having ANY private sector entity charge me the equivalent value I derive from the existence of that road such that they can make up their costs and turn a profit constructing it? If they only charge the people who actually directly drive on it it will take them FOREVER to even make back their construction costs, let alone whatever maintenance costs they incur. And they can't just hike the tolls super high to make more money faster, that will just drive people off using the road... which will have a detrimental effect on all the people who are secondarily depending on the benefits it confers.How many corporation do you know who will take on a multi billion dollar project on the premise that they can tell their stockholders that hey, 50 years from now it might possibly go into the black! You know... assuming it remains a major transportation conduit that entire time and our maintenance costs don't spike and blah, blah, blah...Yeah, right. The private sector doesn't do certain things well at all. Private companies build toll rods only in very specific circumstances for a reason. They built them in high population density high traffic areas where they are guaranteed to be able to build relatively short stretches of road for minimal cost and thus have a decent chance of making those costs back through toll charges. This will NOT get you something like the 200+ miles of Interstate through the mountains between the Pacific and Nevada. No private corporation is taking on that project, because they're not stupid.But it's still something we want done.