Really - most of the large, heavily regulated or government-owned industries I can think of have runaway prices and seem very inefficient. In some cases the government will also pay some or all of the price themselves. Education and healthcare come to mind.
Can anybody think of an industry where government ownership leads to more efficiency and lower prices (including the amount the government pays)?
One argument I've heard in favor of government-owned industry is for things that must be more or less guaranteed for everybody, regardless of capital.
Drinking water, postal service, election management, and violence (police, national guard, military) come to mind.
Those examples might be more efficient and affordable if privatized, but then it might be expensive or unreliable to get mail in Alaska, or there might be lawlessness near parts of the Mexican border, or elections might be fraudulent in some districts.
Throwing tax dollars, laws, and bureaucracy at these things doesn't necessarily improve them, but maybe it raises the bottom, at considerable cost.
Can anybody think of an industry where government ownership leads to more efficiency and lower prices (including the amount the government pays)?