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Re:California Mayors Join Campaign to Buy Out PG&E by kevingadd on Tuesday November 05, 2019 @06:23PM (#21457967)
Even if a local utility company is privatized that doesn't automatically make it impossible for it to run well. We have many examples of both local privatized and public power companies, so we know that either system can work well if managed correctly. Given that PG&E isn't running properly as a privatized one and we have examples for how the government can do it right, we might as well take over and imitate those successes.
Re:California Mayors Join Campaign to Buy Out PG&E by dheera on Tuesday November 05, 2019 @06:45PM (#21458162)
I'd personally have more faith in a privatized company or a government entity (rather than a public company) because the lack of ability to freely trade shares means shareholders are more aligned with the long-term mission of the company.

With public companies, the people who own the company don't even live here and they only own it to make a quick buck. They'll live in an armchair in Wall Street and short sell in a heartbeat to make quick bucks on the downturn, not realizing that their trigger-happy, short-selling behavior is actually hurting California residents who depend on the company to be funded at the worst of times to fix problems and upgrade infrastructure.

Re:California Mayors Join Campaign to Buy Out PG&E by icebraining on Wednesday November 06, 2019 @05:06AM (#21461137)
Short-selling doesn't take away money from the company. Except for startups looking to fund their current growth by issuing new stock, a dip in the stock price shouldn't affect their operations at all.
Re:California Mayors Join Campaign to Buy Out PG&E by dehrmann on Wednesday November 06, 2019 @01:15AM (#21460153)
> we might as well take over and imitate those successes

Except PG&E is 100x larger than SVP and has completely different operations.