Re:Why privatisation has been a costly failure in Britain
by ccppurcell on Tuesday July 11, 2023 @06:12AM
(#36678811)
Money is power. Regulation is a fig leaf. Think of taxation: the government makes all the rules on how much tax a business should pay under this or that circumstance. How much tax do the biggest companies pay? Next to nothing, pound for pound. Because they are able to use their money to exert power. Companies will always do this, so regulations will always erode over time.
Re:Why privatisation has been a costly failure in Britain
by madaxe_again on Tuesday July 11, 2023 @08:35AM
(#36680107)
This is a function of the form and culture of government - our current system, of professional politicians, is ruinous.
I have numerous thoughts on what would be better, such as sortition, or devolution and administrative federalisation, but as long as we have party politics and elections on mass scales, we will have corruption baked into the system. What we have worked reasonably well before mass communication, but with each step of communications technology, one of the core principles of representative democracy - representation - erodes, as the battles become tribal and personality driven on vast scales, and defy ration and reason.
Re:Why privatisation has been a costly failure in Britain
by ccppurcell on Wednesday July 12, 2023 @03:50AM
(#36691556)
I think we probably agree on a lot of things! I would prefer to increase the relative power of local councils and often think about how to implement some version of sortition. You might be interested in the concept of "random ballot" (that's the Wikipedia page title) if you don't already know it.
Re:Why privatisation has been a costly failure in Britain
by mrfumier on Tuesday July 11, 2023 @06:31AM
(#36678974)
Exactly.
Many people seems to mistake "free market" with "anarchy".
Free market only works because there are anti-trust laws, anti-corruption laws, regulated lobbying. Otherwise, it is not a free market.
I too believe that free markets are the solution to a great many of the conundrums of organising a society, but I also believe that a strong and socially conscious (by which I mean its prime directive is the enhancement and improvement of living conditions for all of those under its jurisdiction) regulatory hand is necessary.
The U.K. has plenty of regulations, and toothless enforcement of practically all of them, to the extent where ignoring them and the ensuing fines are just a cost of doing business.
With firm regulation, a free market could operate both profitably and fairly to run public services.
As long as there’s a commingling of commercial and political interests, however, this is an improbable reality. The changes would have to start in the culture of government.