Elon Musk wants to privatize the U.S. post office and Amtrak, he said Wednesday.
It's “kind of embarrassment” that other countries have “a far better passenger railroad than us” during their virtual appearance at the Morgan Stanley Tech Conference, like the Chinese bullet train.
“Amtrak is in a sad situation,” he said. “If you're from another country, don't use our National Railroad. It can leave a very bad impression of America.”
“We should privatize anything we can privatize,” said Tesla and the SpaceX billionaire, who are also the faces of the Trump administration's cost-cutting agency.
“There's a feedback loop for improvement. It's what happens when something is privatized,” Musk said. “Essentially, there's no good feedback loop for something to go bankrupt or improvement.”
However, he acknowledged that “a bundle of these things requires action for the sake of Congress.”
Musk did not provide details on whether or when these actions will take place.
His comments reiterate President Trump's own call at a press conference in December to make USPS private for the first time and to have an idea first.
Trump told reporters that privatizing the post office was “not the worst idea I've ever heard,” and “we're watching it.”
He doubled last month, and Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick said he would “find” the postal service to fold it to the Department of Commerce.
“I think we can turn that around, but that's — it's the post office,” the president said.
“We've lost so much money in the postal service. We don't want to lose that kind of money. So, secretaries and talent, some other people who have such talent, we'll see it,” he added.
USPS is well known for losing money and regularly posts annual losses related to retirement pensions.
In the most recent fiscal year ended September 30, Postal Services reported that price increases by $1.4 billion in operating revenue to $79.54 billion due to a decline in volume.
That too suffered a net loss of $9.5 billion – USPS increased by $3 billion from the previous year due to “factors outside management” due to “management of management, specifically amortization of unfinanced retirement pension obligations.”
Those who oppose making postal services private have argued that it is an essential service for Americans living in rural or inaccessible areas that companies like UPS and FedEx don't offer.
Meanwhile, masks' light-heartedness to the US National Railroad System is nothing new.
His futuristic rapid transit pitch “Hyperloop” appears to have been born out of “the hatred of California's proposed high-speed rail system.”
Musk's representatives did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
