And even with no capitalism involved in the equation, how do we convince the government to get taxpayers to foot the bill for something as mundane as an image hosting service? Especially in an environment where even art and education are being severely restricted in cash flow due to them being "non-essential services"?

[–] Lenins2ndCat@lemmy.world 1 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

In terms of getting that through I really don't think it would be difficult, the main barrier is ideology as the actual usefulness of it is very obvious and it's easy to make the historic case that the private sector fails this industry over and over again. The biggest issue you would face is the one of whether porn should be allowed on it or not and I'd expect it to be a "not" outcome even in a socialist government. As for the costs point I don't see an issue, if they're profit-driven to begin with then they can run at break-even for government with the surplus either going to workers or going to improvement in quality of the services instead of to the investors.

Ideally I think a hybrid of private an national seems to work best, let the private sector build shit then take the important ones from them. At least while most of the world is still capitalist.