And another thing! <The government does not consider that up-front price regulation is necessary or
desirable. Instead, prospective partners will be required to set out their proposed
prices for products, which they will be required to commit to. This requirement, in
combination with ongoing independence, equivalence and transparency requirements,
is likely to impose a level of discipline that is appropriate for nascent LFC businesses. >
Wow, stuck with a price. Better make it a high one! I would want to make introductory low price offers to make really sure that people come swarming in, then maybe raise the price if demand justifies it.
The government has already shown what they think about pricing. Companies are allowed to make bank rates of return [meaning, not the profit that banks make, but the interest that a depositor gets at a bank]. Vector, [me as a shareholder], in the business of selling fibre [and electricity supplies] decided a few years ago to stop investing because the government's Commerce Commission declared us to be greedy Rich Pricks robbing the poor citizens of their hard-earned dole.
There might be suckers willing to take on the Helengrad price control Kremlin. It won't be me. I would love to invest in fibre, but decades ago I learned that investing in public things leads to government confiscation [via price controls or other regulations or "emergency" demands].
The way to invest in public assets is to wait until there is a bust up of the USSR then get Lehman Brothers or somebody to lend a fortune to privatize super valuable assets. NZ's richest bloke [Graeme Hart a decent guy] bought Government Print Office in the 1980s and leveraged it up to the multi-$billion rankings. $5 will get you $10 that he will not be investing in the funding ecology for NZ's fibreway. nzherald.co.nz He plays business the way some play golf = it's his hobby.
He might be willing to buy it in 10 years or so when NZ goes bust.
There's too much cargo cult in NZ thinking these days. en.wikipedia.org In the various conferences intended to boost NZ's economy, there is a train of thought that thinks of producers as cows to be milk and entrepreneurs as sheep to be fleeced, for the public good of course, not just for the benefit of those enjoying political power [the true result].
They look overseas [overseizure = a common psychological complaint first reported in the 1960s], see fibre, computers, industrialisation, car making, tv making and they come up with copycat ideas. If we just put in a lot of that fibre stuff, then we can all get rich when those Geeks send us lots of money. If we industrialize like Japan, then we'll be rich. If we get lots of people, our economies of scale will be excellent - it works for USA, Germany, France, Great Britain, but not for Bangladesh, India, Indonesia, Mao's China, Nigeria which are the examples they should think of. If we build cars like Japan and USA, then we'll be rich. Okay, we'll make tvs [they really did, in Waihi, in the 1970s and I used to sell a bit of lubricant to the factory].
None of it worked or can work.
Okay, I admit that's just a rehash of my first effort, but when a bull sees a red cape, they do get a bit riled up and can't help but charge. And again...
I suppose that pricing mumbo jumbo means something, but to me it just says "There will be a price commissar sitting in Helengrad who will tell you what you can charge". <This requirement, in
combination with ongoing independence, equivalence and transparency requirements,
is likely to impose a level of discipline that is appropriate... >
Rather than form giant committees and hopeless PPP conferences to make it all make sense [which it won't do] the government should just spend $2 billion and roll out a bunch of fibre and say it's free to use for everyone [or charge a little bit if it gets overloaded]. Treat it like a new road. Just another piece of government property which is free. That would be a lot cheaper than the current plan. Bad luck for anyone who has fibre in the area - they could be offered a few dollars to hand it over or see government fibre be laid alongside and given away - with new laws making privately owned use of government property right of ways really expensive.
There would be a large feather-bedded sinecure for a bunch government kleptocrats to run it, but they are going to be needed in addition to the private part of the deal as it is.
Mqurice |
