[CheezeIt]

> It isn't supposed to be profitable!

It’s supposed to break even. It’s supposed to be a service that provides value. If it isn’t providing value, it loses its reason to exist.

You can argue that the consumer captures a lot of surplus value from the postal service. But it doesn’t exist just to please people who like public programs.

The same with libraries.

[dataflow]

> It’s supposed to break even. It’s supposed to be a service that provides value.

Do SNAP, Medicaid, etc. provide value? Do they "break even"?

Who/what says it has to break even at all?

[solarmist]

Provide value != make money

Schools also do not break even.

[musicale]

The point is a good one - we assume that the benefit of K-12 public education is worth spending money on, and that there is a societal benefit to providing that education at no direct cost to students or their parents.

In contrast, (nominally) private higher education seems to do pretty well financially - even "non-profit" universities. Charging up to $80K a year and/or eating billions of dollars in government grants probably helps - so they aren't exactly independent from public funding, but we consider that funding to be wortwhile in terms of research and education outcomes, even when it goes into the pockets of wealthy, elite institutions.