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Politics : Libertarian Discussion Forum -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?


To: Road Walker who wrote (9838)6/17/2014 11:15:19 PM
From: TimF  Read Replies (1) | Respond to of 13056
 
How many times do you hear about ANY water system where there are chunks in the water, at least any system in a rich country?

Your cherry picking the extreme outlier and ignoring the overall data that privatization or partial privatization has generally had positive results.

You say "water" isn't the best privatization argument... but you continue to argue it.

It isn't the best, but its ok. The situation isn't ideal but still the results have mostly been positive. Its a good example in one way, it shows that even in many of the difficult and imperfect cases for the private sector is still often does a good job, in many cases better than the government.



To: Road Walker who wrote (9838)6/18/2014 9:35:38 PM
From: i-node  Read Replies (1) | Respond to of 13056
 
>> You say "water" isn't the best privatization argument... but you continue to argue it. Just say "OK", a good government function.

RW

You continuously use these extreme arguments as the basis for your attacks against private enterprise. But few people argue that municipal water systems are the source of any huge problem.

In the overall scheme of things the federal government is the big problem. Some states have problematic governments. And some localities. But most of the problems with bureaucratic inability to function are in Washington DC.

For government to provide water & sewer, roads and bridges, and other legitimate services, I certainly have no complaint with it. It is true, my trash pickup was far better before the municipality took over our county water & sewer. It was better and cheaper. But it isn't horrible now.

OTOH, we have talked about health care and it is a total mess, and the more involved government gets, the bigger the mess. If you look at other federal services -- like Social Security -- they are disasters. Total disasters. We are spending twice as much at the federal level on education as we were 30 years ago, and the quality of education just keeps getting worse, and the federal government is paralyzed to do anything about it.
Even the military, which is an inherent function of government, has been the source of ridicule for 80 years for its inefficiency and bloat.

What, exactly, do you think the federal government does well?