Don't shoot the messenger. I didn't say I agreed with the argument.

For example, anyone who is in favor of "smaller government" should support of the "Defund the police" movement. They do not. That should tell you something about the state of critical thinking.

Public healthcare is "communism" but police and the armed forces are somehow not. I've made literally the same argument to someone on here a while back. Here it is: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=25503815

Not sure about the GP, but the case that you want to avoid is capital being allocated for political reasons rather than towards productive enterprise.

I didn't say I agreed. I'm just telling you why it didn't happen.

FWIW the UK and Canada (and maybe other Commonwealth countries) have had successful examples of public-owned companies. The US has no such tradition and is, therefore, culturally resistant to the idea.