Private Companies Move In to Support National Parks During Shutdown, Moving Government Importance Further Into the Background

FILE - This Jan. 14, 2015 file photo shows El Capitan in Yosemite National Park, Calif. Brad Gobright and climbing partner Jim Reynolds set a new speed record for ascending the Nose route of El Capitan in Yosemite National Park on Saturday, Oct. 21, 2017. The two climbers raced up the nearly 90-degree, 2,900-foot precipice in 2 hours and 19 minutes. (AP Photo/Ben Margot, File)

The government is super important and we’ll fall apart without it — says the government — but time and again the American people have proved that we can get along just fine with bare bones governing as our founders intended.

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In fact, we seem to thrive when the government is lessened.

A perfect example comes in the form of our national parks, which the left uses as an example of the things we won’t have as a result of politicians not getting their way. They make it out to be a massive tragedy, as the government won’t be there to take care of the parks and keep them open for the people.

They couldn’t be more wrong, as private businesses are now stepping up to make sure that the American people can still enjoy their parks.

It all started when Jerry Johnson, owner of a Yellowstone tour guide and snowmobile rental company, got flooded with concerns and complaints that many people’s booked events would be canceled in light of the shutdown. Unwilling to toss his customers out, or lose the money he got from them to pay his employees and operation costs, Johnson gathered his fellow businessmen, and they took matters into their own hands.

From the DailyWire:

As a result, Johnson and a handful of other local small business owners are chipping in to keep trails groomed and keep the park’s main road open to tourists, who are now getting into the park for free — since rangers aren’t stationed at the park’s entrance to collect the typical $35-per-car fee tourists typically pay.

Overall, the project costs around $7,500 per day, but split between local tour guide companies, snowmobile rental places, and souvenir shops, the cost comes to around $300 per day, and the locals are happy to donate if it means Yellowstone will remain open to people who travel from far and wide to see the park’s natural majesty.

The companies are even pitching in to help clean bathrooms.

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The companies state that they’ll continue to do this through the shutdown until February. At that point, the business owners say they’ll “regroup” and figure out a more long-term plan.

Regardless, we can see the private sector doing what the government should be doing, and at a fraction of a fraction of the cost.

This is just one more example of how the private sector will always do it better than the government and is almost as good as Dominos fixing the potholes the government was taking its sweet time getting to.

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