Goodbye to the Postal Service and Amtrak in the United States: Elon Musk suggests privatizing these agencies and many more

South African businessman Elon Musk revealed that the United States Postal Service (USPS) and Amtrak should be privatized due to the "possibility" that any organization may go bankrupt and give rise to a cycle of "feedback for improvement."

During a recent virtual participation at the Morgan Stanley Technology, Media & Telecom Conference, the tech magnate also pointed out the Amtrak railway company as a possible government entity that could be privatized due to its shortcomings.

In fact, Musk compared the Amtrak passenger rail system with China's high-speed trains: "The situation of Amtrak is sad. If you come from another country, don't use our national railway. It can give you a very bad impression of the United States," declared the businessman.

In addition, the Senior Advisor of the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) mentioned that the lack of competition in the railway sector has become one of the main factors hindering the constant improvement of Amtrak.

Musk aims to privatize everything possible

In the same intervention, the owner of companies such as Tesla and SpaceX also stated the "need" to privatize "everything possible" as a way to create incentives for efficiency and innovation, something that, according to Musk, the public sector could not provide.

"I believe we should privatize everything possible, so there is a feedback cycle that enables improvement. That's what happens when something is privatized. Basically, something has to have some possibility of going bankrupt or there won't be a good feedback cycle for improvement," stated the magnate.

The statements made by Musk, logically, generated diverse reactions from key players in the sector, such as the President of the Rail Passengers Association, Jim Mathews, who stated that Amtrak is not designed to operate as a profitable company.

Meanwhile, Mark Dimondstein, President of the American Postal Workers Union, pointed out that any privatization effort could be harmful to the American population due to the increase in shipping costs.

This is not the first time Elon Musk has sought to intervene in a government agency. In previous years, the businessman tried to cancel a government-funded high-speed train project in California, which remains "in limbo." Similarly, shortly after the 2024 elections, the X account of the DOGE published a list of the alleged failures of the project in the Californian state.

*This article has been automatically translated using artificial intelligence