On Mon, 23 Jun 2003 21:24:19 GMT, "Trevor Wilson"
<trevor@no-spam> wrote:
[snip]
>
>**I don not think the government should be in lots of businesses.
Well, I disagree on this. Why not? Keeps the competition honest. And
if, as the detractors say, it's horribly inefficient, then the
competition has plenty of scope for still making a buck, so what's the
problem? But the big plus is that it offsets the bits that private
companies just won't touch because they know it's gonna be running at
a loss.
>However,
>recent privatisations have just shown us how costly and dumb the private
>sector can really be. Telstra, f'rinstance, worked just fine, whilst it was
>100% government owned. As did the CES. And the health system.
And, for that matter, toll roads. So, a company can build a road, put
a toll on it, pay back the capital expenditure (with interest) and
still make a profit, but the govt. can't? Hmm... Oh yeah - they can
make a profit only because they get a govt. subsidy and/or tax breaks.
Neil
---
Neil Fisher / Bob Young
Thundercords
personal opinion unless otherwise noted.
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"Neil Fisher" <NeilFisher@no-spam> wrote in message
news:3ef785f3.51881151@no-spam
> On Mon, 23 Jun 2003 21:24:19 GMT, "Trevor Wilson"
> <trevor@no-spam> wrote:
>
> [snip]
>
> >
> >**I don not think the government should be in lots of businesses.
>
> Well, I disagree on this. Why not? Keeps the competition honest.
**Well, yes it may do so. However, without a vibrant and active busniess
sector, an economy will fail (witness the old USSR, et al). My point to Mr
Bedingfield was a couple of self-evident trths, pertaining to Telstra. Those
points being:
* Before privatisation and the introduction of competition, Telstra provided
a world-class service at an extremely good price (compared to other Western
nations).
* Before privatisation, Telstra returned very healthy earnings to the
government. Those earnings were well in excess of CPI rises. IOW: Telstra
provided (and still provides) a bloody good return on investment.
* Now we have competition, we have massive and wasteful duplication of
infrastructure. That infrastructure must be paid for. It is just plain dumb
to have THREE cellular 'phone carriers, f'rinstance, erecting three sets of
towers, switching equipment and other assorted bits, when one set will do
just fine. It is also dumb to have multiple sets of fibre optic cables
connecting the major cities, when one will do just fine.
* Regardless of promises made, Telstra will not maintain services in
uneconomical areas (ie: the Bush).
* I wonder if Mr Bedingfield would sell a 100% secure investment, which paid
him a healthy annual return, well beyond inflation figures, year in, year
out. Well, this is what our government is planning to do. Talk about
'selling the cow'.
And
> if, as the detractors say, it's horribly inefficient, then the
> competition has plenty of scope for still making a buck, so what's the
> problem? But the big plus is that it offsets the bits that private
> companies just won't touch because they know it's gonna be running at
> a loss.
**Governments are really good at the big stuff (roads, essential
communications, insurance, etc). They're not so good at the little stuff
(grocery stores, etc).
>
> >However,
> >recent privatisations have just shown us how costly and dumb the private
> >sector can really be. Telstra, f'rinstance, worked just fine, whilst it
was
> >100% government owned. As did the CES. And the health system.
>
> And, for that matter, toll roads. So, a company can build a road, put
> a toll on it, pay back the capital expenditure (with interest) and
> still make a profit, but the govt. can't? Hmm... Oh yeah - they can
> make a profit only because they get a govt. subsidy and/or tax breaks.
**Yeah, what a con. I have no major objection to user pays stuff. It is just
plain idiotic to place tolls on roads. It's incredibly innefficient and
unweildy. Much better to increase registration costs (IOW: Taxation) and let
the government organise things.
--
Trevor Wilson
www.rageaudio.com