Memes

This is something you really can't say one way or the other.

I could cite examples of sick, failing government owned companies that did better under privatization, or simply shouldn't have been governments owned in the first place. On the other hand, I could cite disastrous privatization efforts that should never have happened because they were vital services, or in the national interest. I lived through most of it in the UK when they were privatising stuff left right and centre - some succeeded, others didn't.

And if they stay under the control of government then they need incentivization and means for measuring success. Success doesn't just mean profit but it does mean value and quality of service. And in some ways that would require operating similar to if it were a private company.

Even if it was more efficient on average it still would have major costs associated with privatization, namely ceding control from the public.

Corruption is the issue when governments are involved with capital. Social inequality is the issue when private owners control the capital.

My view is that having an army and control over the capital is too many eggs in the same basket.

looks at ICBC, BC Hydro and BC Ferries.

Looks at how Canadian ISPs led the world in early internet technology then once privatized, ignored it and allowed Nortel to be infiltrated and shut down by CCP spies, allowing then to steal 5G technology.

Hell, in Vancouver you have the private Canada /RAV line, and the public Skytrain line. One was built in the 1980s and isn't at capacity yet and the private one was finished in 2008 and is already over capacity.

Yeah there really is 0 comparison between public and private.

The government should not be efficient. The faster it moves the faster it can oppress.

Having worked on both sides. Private industry has the ability to quickly maneuver and change tact.

Imo

But government likes to starve the stuff they run to make it look bad so they can carve it up and sell it to their mates. See literally anything Britain privatised.

Anything with no competition trends towards being shit over time.

b-b-but wait times

If you believe this, a year working at a Fortune 500 should cure you of it.

The entire capitalism system relies on the capitalists being honest. The problem is that most of them are not.

You should see the companies in charge of the mexican government.

Certain things, yes. Certain other things, not at all.

As much as I hate Elon Musk the company he owns that does space stuff pretty rapidly got a whole lot of new rockets up and got them to land instead of crashing into the sea. The newest govt produced rocket, the SLS, was years late and billions of dollars over budget, and they expend the rockets.

spaceX did some cool stuff. That being said, fuck Elon Musk, he had nothing to do with any of its success.

The government needs to take over things which are not viable for the private sector, but important for society to work.

Lets say privatisation of public transport: In countries where it is completely private, only major cities have reasonable connections. Because those are the most profitable ones. But if you want people to actually use public transport, you need to have a fine and widely spread net of connections. For that to happen either the state completely owns the public transport, or takes off financial pressure and only partially owns it.

Exactly this mechanism enables (partially) state owned organizations to run suboptimal. As explained in the example, this is a desired effect. But it also enables memes like the lazy state employee - which are at least partially true.

I mean, I'm not arguing for private companies, but our government is quite spectacularly inefficient at anything except generating prime ministers! Mind you, they may be trying to be worse than the private sector so they cna claim the private sector is more efficient than the government, I guess...

Typically this is something I hear more commonly within businesses.

Unsurprisingly the business thinks business is the most efficient way to run anything.