Harry Pollard wrote: > > Brad, > > Public Utilities need competition for them to work effectively. Yet, they > are naturally monopolies. The distribution of electricity and water, roads, > sewers, and so on have no effective competition. They should never be sold > to the highest private bidder. > > It should be printed in capital letters in Economics 99 that you do not > "privatize" a monopoly. > > However, it is easy enough to introduce competition - something > "privatization" doesn't do.
OK. I give up. How does one introduce competition without privitization? But what was so terrible about the ATT monopoly on telephone service? They made telephones that were virtually indestructible (short of an attack by Saddam Hussein with a WMD, of course!), and anybody wioth a little savvy [like in 1959 my father who was a housepaint salesman, not an EE genius...] could figure out a way to circumvent some of their charges -- Goffman's First Law in action...). > > "Privatization" is advocated by people with only a vague notion of free > society philosophy - but with an urgent need to do something quick that > looks anti-collective. > > You sound like Michael Caine. I don't know who he is/was. I don't even know who Citizen Kane was (which I think is a worse failing on my part). Different topic: I just figured out why the Egyptean Pharoahs built the Great Pyramids at Giza: As shelters against possible attack by Saddam Hussein with cuneiform WMDs (Weapons of Mass Descruction). God save the King [Dubya-ous I, not Cassius Clay]! \brad mccormick > > Harry > ____________________________________________ > > Brad wrote: > > > How the Public Utilities became public again > > > > After the government sold all the Public Utilities > > to private investment groups at bargain basement prices, > > the new owners invested nothing in their new acquisitions, > > but milked them for all they could get out of them. > > Service became unreliable at best, and consumers demanded > > a change. So the private investors sold the Utilities > > back to the government for book value, thus making another > > killing, the Utilities once again, back under government > > stewardship, returned to providing reliable service, and > > everybody was happy again -- except that the consumers > > had to pay much higher utility rates than before, to pay > > back the bonds the government had sold to private > > investors [usually the same ones who had bought > > the Utilities in the first place...] to buy > > the Utilities back. > > > >Sleep well, you little Future Captains of Industry! > > > >\brad mccormick > > ****************************** > Harry Pollard > Henry George School of LA > Box 655 > Tujunga CA 91042 > [EMAIL PROTECTED] > Tel: (818) 352-4141 > Fax: (818) 353-2242 > ******************************* > > ------------------------------------------------------------------------ > > --- > Outgoing mail is certified Virus Free. > Checked by AVG anti-virus system (http://www.grisoft.com). > Version: 6.0.393 / Virus Database: 223 - Release Date: 9/30/2002 -- Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works.... (Matt 5:16) Prove all things; hold fast that which is good. (1 Thes 5:21) <![%THINK;[SGML+APL]]> Brad McCormick, Ed.D. / [EMAIL PROTECTED] ----------------------------------------------------------------- Visit my website ==> http://www.users.cloud9.net/~bradmcc/
