National Park Closures due to Shutdown

Eric&Lisa wrote:
I don't get it. We visited Devil's Tower National Monument this summer. $20 to get in. We hit Glacier National Park. $35 to get in. I am all-in with pay-to-play rather than confiscate (tax) and allocate. Both parks were very active. We got to Devil's Tower mid-morning, and when we left two hours later the vehicle line at the entrance was literally a mile long. Completely full parking at Glacier National Park. On a week days. If I had to guess they are pulling in high 5-figures to low 6-figures per park per day.

With these kind of prices for admission I don't see how the government is having to subsidize the operation. If the National Parks are operating at a break-even point, why do they need to be shut down? And if they are operating at a loss, why are they not charging more for admission??

It seems to me shutting down the National Parks is more about posturing and politics than it is about funding. The billion dollar (thanks, Google) National Parks concession business is already run by private businesses like Xanterra. Maybe we should turn over day-to-day operations to them completely and get the government out of trying to run a business. No reason to have a mile long line at the entrance and have one person operating the toll station, it would not be tough for private business to do better.

My $.02....
-Eric

Unfortunately it doesn't work that way.

Fees collected on National Park goes to general fund and only gets allocated to the parks based on budget. Effectively, cash cows subsidizes the smaller parks.

And even that, National Parks are underfunded and deficits are either done by private donations or the manpower needs are filled by unpaid volunteers.