Its not just slick salesmen and corrupt politicos. With conventional systems, each user wanting to have an private ch needs its own freq. With an TRS, that is history. You can now take an much larger group of users and have them all sharing fewer freqs. You also have an wider range of interop options (assuming proper training and planning) and security options as well. Trunking Systems are more efficient spectrum wise than having to get a buttload of separate freqs for every single use. In the "golden era" of things, you had to have separate freqs for FD dispatch, FG's, EMS dispatch, MED's, HEAR's, PD dispatch, TAC's, Car to Car's, DPW dispatch, OP's, etc, etc... Now on an TRS, instead of having at least 2 to 3 freqs for each and every user in an area, you can have as few as 5 for everyone. And that's just putting the simplified explanation down. And with Statewide TRS's, it makes streamlining communications actually easier now. Proper implementation of these systems means bye bye for everyone using different bands, loads of spectrum, battles over who can talk to who and on and on. This FD on VHF Low that one on VHF High, others on UHF, EMS needing both VHF High and UHF, same for LEA's..... All requiring differing radios for each band, etc... Not anymore. One could use this argument for HAM guys too. HAM has finally found the digital age but still has not streamlined fully into cohesive use of spectrum. Yes you are getting there with multiband radios, internet/satellite nodes and wider area linking, but you still have needs for multiple communications abilities that require multiple radios. And you run into the same issues as public safety and business do. Costs. You want to talk to X on one band, Y on another, Z on another, A in another state, B in another country possibly. It isn't cheap to get the right gear, with the right power, and the right capabilities. Not to mention repeaters, computer gear, tower space, and so on. Maybe one day everyone will get it together both in the business, public safety, and amateur arenas. Tech advances literally daily in the communications field, and that is an good thing. But then again, maybe everyone actually working together to get things done right is still an pipe dream. Only time will tell.