It is blatantly obvious even to the most ardent of Capitalists that privatisation doesn't work, it increase costs and lowers the quality of services because it is impossible for the private sector to deliver the same service for less than the Government and make a profit and making a profit is the only reason they are there in the first place while the customers get a worse and more expensive and lower quality service.
It has been one of the greatest pups sold to the public because to be frank, it blatantly just doesn't work and to driving home the point nicely is the ongoing debacle over Water.
It was Margaret Thatcher in a zeal of reckless privatisation who sold all the Water utilities in 1989, writing off their existing debts and three decades later the privately owned companies shareholders are doing very well but all are all tens of billions in debt and the Government are considering taking them back into public ownership.
The Government, keen to defend the Thatcher legacy point to the £36 billion which has been spent by the companies on infrastructure but are less keen to announce that it is half of the £72 billion which has been paid to the companies shareholders in that same time.
No new water reservoirs have been built in England since 1989 and some of the land held by the companies has instead been used for house building and the regulator Ofwat reported that amidst urgent calls for hosepipe bans and saving water, more than three billion litres, a fifth of the volume used, were lost to leakage every day and they have said they will spend billions to improve the infrastructure but the small print was that water and sewage bills would need to go up by as much as 40% to pay for it.
Thatcher’s crusade to privatise public services has proven itself ineffective, inefficient and a hugely expensive in many areas, a look at your gas and electric bills prove that but as water is essential to life, it is too precious to be trusted to companies who see it only as a way to satisfy their lust for larger profits and should be run not for profit but for the necessity that it is.
5 comments:
no, privatization do not always put profit over service. wrong. ever heard of 4 star hotels, 3 star restaurants, concierge services, etc.???
but one could say that government owned and managed entities will always put red tape, populist views, and quotas on service... well, except for the great service one received in the ussr, and currently receives from china, cuba, venezuela, n korea, iran. all great examples of great service. riiiiiiiiiiight? not
You had hotels, restaurants and concierge services which were run by the Government and were then successfully privatised? I only have the awful examples of the water, gas, electric, rail, post, parts of the NHS, telecoms etc here to go on and ALL have become more far more expensive and offer a worse service.
you werent specific were you? when the left attacks privatization what it typically means is any form of private ownership, not limited to utilities
in the us gas, electric, rail, post, most health, and telecom are all private and are good values with excellent service.
what are yawl doing wrong?
What’s to be specific about? Privatisation means the transfer of a business, industry, or service from public to private ownership and control hence my remarks about things you mentioned with were blatantly not previously public.
What we are doing wrong is stupidly voting in disastrous right wing numpties who sell off everything.
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