9. Why are government owned enterprises frequently not profitable?

Question

9. Why are government owned enterprises frequently not profitable?

Answer 1

Endless, NEEDLESS layers of bureaucracy... no incentive to be innovative or cost cutting... impossible to fire "dead wood"... benefits in excess of the private sector...

Answer 2

Because they don't have to be to survive.  Gov't insures their survival regardless of profitability.

Two instances are Amtrak and the US Postal Service.

Amtrak loses money every year, yet still exists because taxpayers fund it.

The only reason the USPS survives is because they have a gov't mandated monopoly on first class and junk mail.  No private company is allowed to compete in those vital areas.  If Fed Ex were allowed to compete to deliver regular mail to your post office, the USPS would become useless.