alt Hacker Newsmaybe a better analogy would be:
People set up and fund a public bus system that has coverage for all neighborhoods, rich or poor, distant or close.
And then after the bus system is up and running, the bus system manager decides transportation is important! He IPOs the bus system, and changes all the routes to money-making routes with cost optimized (higher) fares.
See, one reason it doesn't matter if the public directly owns a bus system is that you can just pass laws telling them what routes they have to run.
But also, a money-making bus system would mean people actually use it. Nobody uses most American bus systems because they don't go anywhere, and they're slower when they do because they aren't popular enough to replace car traffic.