There is, I think, a major flaw in the question (capitalist or socialist?). Our system is a bit of most. We have publicly funded Police and Firemen, for instance. I have yet to hear ANYBODY suggesting that Police get privatized. One of the southern states, for get which, actually tried to privatize their fire department but after houses catching fire and lighting up others they put a quick stop to that one. There are also things like Libraries that are also socialized along with education. When the voters, and gov, get lazy and these socializations go south the privatizers come out of the woodwork. My own view is that, in most cases, privatization is little more than an opportunity of the greedy (schools have, pretty much proven that one).

The problem is the interface between public and gov. Gov isn't doing its job so its the duty of the voters to get somebody who can actually function. The problem, of course, falls back of the voting public when they screw up. I have not yet noticed anybody actually standing up and stating the simple fact that voters DO SCREW UP, let alone trying to explain how and why. Don't change the simple fact that they do.

I am told that our schools, these days, don't spend a lot of time on "social studies". I even find the title strange "social studies", huh? "social"? Anyway, again, kids need to learn how gov works and it should be a major part of what they learn because they are the voters of the future and, right now, we seem to be producing voters that haven't a clue how it all works. I would actually be pretty interesting. I would really be interested in a school district that forced "social studies" in a big way. Betcha there would be a lot of the ignorant voting parents howling about that one! <G>

Anyway, there are government services that function properly. The VA, for instance, can provide healthcare for approximately 30% of what the retail cost it. (them asking for medicare for all would do much better with VA Healthcare for all) The VA, however, screwed up in some of their hospitals and rather than fix the problem the problem got worse as gov decided to fix it without a real clue (gov sometimes does this). Then the Republicans came in and tried to privatize (and significantly increase the cost without increasing competence). The VA is currently suffering under all this and its getting more screwed up by the day. I have been going to the VA for something close to almost 70 years and have never had a problem until very recently. There have been small irritations and, when I told somebody I found them taken care of. I have a friend who is a doctor working at the VA as a "hospitaler" (hopefully that is his right designation, if not, sorry). His job is to make sure stuff is functioning properly and he has stories to tell. On the other hand I had an employee who got a tattoo. It got infected and the next thing he knew his immune system failed. He was in the local hospital, completely wired up across from the nurses station. In the middle of the night he got up, out of bed, walked out of the hospital dragging wires (I was told this by a witness) and NOBODY even bothered to do anything (the nurse's station, it turned out, was dutifully manned by a sleeping nurse. He went home and hung himself. The point is that all institutions sometimes fail.

I have been in several hospitals, owned and operated by the state (UK, Canada, etc), I got good service and survived.

Anyway, I think I have moved off the topic, my apologies (sometimes I get a bit carried away with the my admiration of my own voice).