Maybe I missed it, but has anybody specifically addressed the core problem: NPS's deferred maintenance backlog of 12 billion dollars? Either voters force Congress to fund the NPS backlog, or voter complacency forces the NPS to offload the backlog into the private sector. If Congress acts, we all (indirectly) pay our fair share to fund the NPS. With privatization, only those who use the park system will pay---inevitably resulting in much higher entrance and service fees. Bottom line, does America care enough about their National Parks to share the burden--fund the $12,000,000,000 backlog? If not, then privatization it is---just like NASA did with parts of it space program.
