Amtrak isn't a business and hasn't been from day one. Providing mass transportation is a public good and it has positive externalities. If I drive from New York to Philly, and you take the train, I benefit because you aren't in front of me on the road (particularly if you're going 45 in the left hand lane). I don't know you, I'm not going to mail you a check. So I use the government to subsidize your train ride. Likewise, if you live in Rugby, ND (the geographic center of North America), or Fulton, Ky (the Banana Capital of the World- long story) among many other places, we as a society have determined that you should have affordable intercity transportation. So we subsidize it for you. Call it pork, or graft, or earmarks (unless it's in your district, in which case it's called "jobs" or "investment" or "development"), but its a choice we as a society have made. Amtrak "losses" aren't losses, they're the amount we as a society, through our elected officials, feel is necessary to provide a level of service that we have deemed appropriate.
It's also stupid to set up a false parallelism between public and private goods. Sure, we want a cheap burger on an Amtrak train. But we also want transparency so we know who the burger was purchased from. And we want equity so that the burger contract doesn't go to somebody's cousin. And we want the person who serves it to us to have a living wage. And we want the same from all of the equipment to prepare the burger (ok, it's a microwave, but I'm sure there is a "Buy American" provision). What I'm saying is, when the "government" sells you a burger, it's more than just a burger. The cost of that burger (both what the customer pays and what the taxpayer subsidizes) represents a whole host of other factors that aren't just the beef, cheese, and bread. Do fraud and waste make up a portion of the cost of that burger? No doubt, and I'm sure Amtrak is going to work on removing those, But we need to remember even then, the burger very well may still be more expensive than a McDonalds burger. Private good providers pay taxes (sometimes), but unless you are a shareholder, you don't really have any control on forcing McDonalds to provide all those other things. We're all shareholders in the government, so we use that share to advocate for the things we want to see our money go for.
It's also stupid to set up a false parallelism between public and private goods. Sure, we want a cheap burger on an Amtrak train. But we also want transparency so we know who the burger was purchased from. And we want equity so that the burger contract doesn't go to somebody's cousin. And we want the person who serves it to us to have a living wage. And we want the same from all of the equipment to prepare the burger (ok, it's a microwave, but I'm sure there is a "Buy American" provision). What I'm saying is, when the "government" sells you a burger, it's more than just a burger. The cost of that burger (both what the customer pays and what the taxpayer subsidizes) represents a whole host of other factors that aren't just the beef, cheese, and bread. Do fraud and waste make up a portion of the cost of that burger? No doubt, and I'm sure Amtrak is going to work on removing those, But we need to remember even then, the burger very well may still be more expensive than a McDonalds burger. Private good providers pay taxes (sometimes), but unless you are a shareholder, you don't really have any control on forcing McDonalds to provide all those other things. We're all shareholders in the government, so we use that share to advocate for the things we want to see our money go for.