Private companies are why Flint still has lead water pipes, and why Texas doesn’t have a working power grid, and why you and I are facing a 30%-50% increase in our cost of living.
I mean, I'm not arguing for private companies, but our government is quite spectacularly inefficient at anything except generating prime ministers! Mind you, they may be trying to be worse than the private sector so they cna claim the private sector is more efficient than the government, I guess...
They're doing their best to deal with that small issue, in between ruining everything else. The other side are also crap but are objectively better at everything except number of prime ministers and amount of harm done to the country
My last trip to the DMV was surprisingly smooth. They finally implemented appointments, and, unlikely private doctors, they didn't make me wait in the lobby for 30minutes to 1 hour and then in the examination room for another 15-30 minutes.
They are better at maximizing profits at the expense of the employees, benefits, wages, local taxes and infrastructure. They work for the shareholders. They shovel money to the top few percent of the company. That’s what we call “efficiency”.
The government does not profit. They government pays standard government wages along with union wages and benefits. They maintain infrastructure. They are only as efficient as contracts allow.
Corporations do not have the same goals as government. One seeks to extract maximum profits for the few at the expense of the many, the other seeks to return to the many as much as is feasible in societal good - schools, roads, power, water, etc. at no profit.
It’s hard to believe that anyone with the mental capacity to lift a spoon to their mouth would vote for the right (who are solely responsible for mass privatisation in Australia anyway, im assuming it’s the same elsewhere).
Corporations do not have the same goals as government. One seeks to extract maximum profits for the few at the expense of the many, the other seeks to return to the many as much as is feasible in societal good - schools, roads, power, water, etc. at no profit.
Where I live they have semi-privatized utilities and it’s funny because unlike the fully private company they’ll actually do their job, but then they’ll make record profits and their directors will spend it all doing lines of coke. It’s most noticeable when you compare the lines of the private company to the semi-private one, and one will be overgrown and decrepit while the other will be completely spotless.
We also have a fully public utility and you wouldn’t even notice because the prices are dirt cheap and the infrastructure is taken care of. The only difference between public and private ownership is how much of your money goes into maintenance instead of up the board’s nose.
Looks at how Canadian ISPs led the world in early internet technology then once privatized, ignored it and allowed Nortel to be infiltrated and shut down by CCP spies, allowing then to steal 5G technology.
Hell, in Vancouver you have the private Canada /RAV line, and the public Skytrain line. One was built in the 1980s and isn't at capacity yet and the private one was finished in 2008 and is already over capacity.
Yeah there really is 0 comparison between public and private.
BC Ferries are so nice to ride on. Feels like a mini cruise. Canadian ISPs / mobile providers really do suck ass, makes the American ones look good some how.
The USSR was amazing to live under, especially when you compare it to what it has become after the fact. People forget that Tsarist Russia was a cosmological shithole where your only joy was taking to the vodka. It’s easy to compare a fledgling nation that not even a decade ago was living in absolute squalor with one that just came off the heels of a massive genocide where they took everything for themselves and say one is better than the other, but if you put the two on even footing it’s not even a question which one you’d rather live under.
In fact, you’re going to see that as America starts to fall behind after their colossal head start that even you yourself are going to wish things were done differently, because as fun as eating your own shit is because you can’t get food (yes, this actually happened) that’s no way to live.
The USSR may have been amazing depending on what things you value in life. As far as I understand, the only thing that was in abundance is stability, which is not the only thing needed for an amazing life, as far as I am concerned.
Also, the image of USSR in pop culture seems to have improved a lot and is now much better than the real thing had ever been, but that’s just marketing bullshit
When you actually look at what it was not through the lens of cold war propaganda it does seem like a pretty nice place. Not to say the place was perfect but for what it was they did a really good job with what they had.
EDIT: and Russia just voted to classify homosexuality as “extremism” a perfect example of just how much going capitalist has fucked them up.
Boy does this ring true. I worked for years for a giant multinational publisher and one of their biggest sources of income was taking government money for educational stuff for schools and turning that money into absolutely no useful products while making sure no opportunity to hire another middle manager was overlooked.
Ya know what was a foundational part of the American dream? Pensions. Ya know which employers still offer them? Counties, states and the federal government.
Private companies exist solely to make the people at the top very rich based on the stolen value of employee labor while dumping catastrophic losses in the public sphere. That's capitalism in a nutshell.
You'd have to be unbelievably gullible, naive, traumatized AND brainwashed to be a diehard for a system like that. But, somehow they've managed it. A deluded nation of Amway top performers just one move away from making their own imaginary millions. All simping for the system.
Yesterday an American accidentally admitted that they tip their landlord. It was at that point I said to myself “man you fuckers deserve to suffer under whatever republican you end up voting for next election because we all know that’s what you dumb ass motherfuckers are going to do”
If I had my way I’d make as many services public as possible. I cant stand tge fact that I pay taxes and the “public” transportation (train/bus/subway) isn’t free. Imagine how much pocket change you would have if energy companies, telecoms (cell/wifi), and transportation were all gov-run? All that said I have no idea how that would translate in practice, its a nice little daydream I had.
I always thought my city’s bus system would be more efficient if they didn’t have to bother with charging everyone $1.50 for a ticket when they board.
In fact, they did have free fare this summer in an effort to improve the air quality. Ridership was much higher, and the driver didn’t have to mess with the finicky cash machine at every stop.
Most of the people who take the bus here are poor and/or disabled, anyway. I’d love it if they could do away with fares, but I know they’re doing the best they can with their limited funding.
My bus ride to work shortened by 10 minutes after getting rid of fares. It mostly serviced a poorer area of town to the downtown hub. Notable stops are a grocery store and the public library where 10-15 people swaps would occur.
Add comment