Exactly right. Government has a legal monopoly on coercion, ranging from the death penalty to collection of taxes and enforcement of the barking dog ordinance in Fairfax County, Virginia. Contractors do a lot of government work (in the United States, contractors outnumber direct-hire government employees by a ratio of 2.5:1) but their firms are or should be tagged office=company while the government offices where they may perform their duties should be tagged office=government.
I supervised a computer shop for two years. One-third of my subordinates were direct-hire government employees. Two-thirds worked for a private company with a government contract. They shared offices and were virtually interchangeable. The corporate headquarters was separate, and in my mind would have been tagged office=company. My government office building (the South Agriculture Building, largest government office building in the District of Columbia at the time) would have been tagged office=ministry since USDA is a Cabinet department=ministry. The bus company in Ashgabat is state-owned. I have tagged its depot as a bus depot, not as a government office. Function to me also plays a role. apm On 11/4/2018 8:42 PM, Colin Smale wrote: > > The activity of a prison is on behalf of a government, pursuant to a > statutory duty of the government to administer justice. That its > operation is outsourced to a private company doesn't change that fact. > You can't just start your own prison - it is a state monopoly. > > Public transport may be a state monopoly, but sometimes it isn't. In > the middle you have state regulation, which is the status in much of > the UK. Anyone can start a bus company, but you need to register the > route at least. (I think it might be a bit more complicated than > that...) Providing free transport, well, I suppose anyone can make it > free if they want, but the money has to come from somewhere... > > > On 2018-11-04 15:41, Martin Koppenhoefer wrote: > >> >> >> sent from a phone >> >> On 4. Nov 2018, at 10:19, Allan Mustard <al...@mustard.net >> <mailto:al...@mustard.net>> wrote: >> >>> If it is a budget-dependent company/corporation, such as the >>> Commodity Credit Corporation of the U.S. government, which generates >>> no revenue of its own and relies wholly on appropriations from the >>> U.S. Congress, yes, it should be tagged government. As Deep Throat >>> said, "Follow the money!" >>> >>> >> >> >> I find this difficult, because it implies we define what is original >> government duty and what is not. Providing beer is apparently not a >> government job (any more?), providing healthcare might be (?), what >> about transportation? Is free public transportation a government >> duty? They surely wouldn't generate (at least direct) profits, and if >> the service isn't free it could still be financed by the government >> and not be profitable. Similarly the providing of energy, water, the >> treatment of waste. Europeans tend to see prisons as government >> sites, in the US prisons are often private. >> >> Ciao, Martin >> >> >> >> >> _______________________________________________ >> Tagging mailing list >> Tagging@openstreetmap.org <mailto:Tagging@openstreetmap.org> >> https://lists.openstreetmap.org/listinfo/tagging > > > _______________________________________________ > Tagging mailing list > Tagging@openstreetmap.org > https://lists.openstreetmap.org/listinfo/tagging
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