Yes, the state can do very much of what the private does –but generally at about twice the cost. Look it up –you get on average about fifty cents worth of services for the dollar you send to DC. What nation can prosper –or even maintain itself –in the no-more-cheap-energy future, with that big a drag on its growth margins? We’re on the fast track to the third world if our socialists don’t quit posing as the result rather than the cause of our fade.