I was not advocating contracting out. I only mentioned it because Max suggested difficulties of running a production unit.
On Tue, Dec 11, 2001 at 10:45:32PM -0500, Max B. Sawicky wrote: > 12/11/01 8:43:48 PM, "William S. Lear" > <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > >On Tuesday, December 11, 2001 at 18:04:18 (- > 0500) Max Sawicky writes: > >>The Gov would have to organize a competitive > bidding system, . . . > > > >Why have bidding? Why not just set up a public > company that hires > >staff to run things. The "board" would be publicly > accountable.> > > mbs: fine but that's a different animal -- a public > enterprise, the same as nationalization. Perelman > was talking about contracting out. > > >Perhaps simply owning the intellectual property > of the company and > >having companies freely use it to produce things > (with strings, of > >course) would be the best. No need for > contracts, competitive bids. > > mbs: the intellectual prop is most appropriate for > public ownership. the commodity-type > manufacture lends itself to contracting, > though even so you need a fairly sophisticated > arrangement to get the best deal. All the fuss > about the vacinnation contracts indicates some of > the sort of problems that can come up. Gov wants > the cheapest price, but in a decreasing cost > context this favors the big boys. Little boys > complain, others point out using a sole source > has other risks, thin market means few bidders > and questions about whether the lowest costs > are attained, political interference, etc. etc. > > >play unless you pay us handsome profits"? This > is where a public > >company (really, industry) would come in handy. > > mbs: agreed. even pro-privatization types of the > more sophisticated sort say the Gov should always > reserve part of production to a public entity that > can be ramped up if the contractors screw up. > > problem here is in a perceived emergency there > isn't time to start up a new govt enterprise, > especially in an era when ideology says "if you > can find it in the Yellow Pages, you don't need > public employees and agencies." I'm not > exaggerating. This is literally a test used in > Washington to evaluate the potential for > privatization. Talk about the Stone Age. > > mbs > > -- Michael Perelman Economics Department California State University Chico, CA 95929 Tel. 530-898-5321 E-Mail [EMAIL PROTECTED]
