Triumphrat

Tbirdnz

The train thread got me thinking about the ownership of ‘public’ utilities that have now gone into private ownership. I believe it was the UK’s Thatcher government that started selling off state owned utilities as such and we followed suit.

We privatised our railways, telecoms, electricity and water services and what has happened since ?

The railways were bought by an overseas company which immediately asset stripped the entire network. Selling the railways stations, some of them magnificent buildings, and prime land in the central cities. Installing in their place shacks, in some cases miles from the cities or on the railway platform to dispense tickets. The rolling stock was run down and the rail track deteriorated.

They then sold it to another overseas private company who did virtually nothing and now want to get out of passenger services. The government recently bought back the track for $1 but now has to spend untold millions in getting it back into shape. Using main line services is a nightmare, trains never on time and stations unmanned, if the passengers don’t shut the carriage doors when they alight no-one else does and they flap open and shut as the train barrels down the track to the next station. (The world famous Alpine Scenic Rail is an exception although they sold the stations).

Electricity and water is now very expensive despite the fact 80% of electricity is generated by hydro and this country is not short of water. The private companies that own these utilities are more focused on profit than infrastructure so now electricity service is unreliable.

Telecom just announced a NZ$3 billion profit this week, but we are among the world’s slowest for broad-band speed, with poor coverage and high priced.

Privatisation here hasn’t worked, corporate greed has.

--------------------
Ride on !

tba-golfer

Maybe...just maybe, give it time.

There was an interesting article this week in the New York Times about the short and long term effects in NZ when agricultural subsidies were altered dramatically. Wish I could have down loaded it for you. The net gist of this piece, or slant, maybe, was that there was pain ( a bunch) in the short run, but larger micro and macro gains longer term.

Maybe just the bias of the article...

All things considered, I'm a believer in economic competition. Someone(s)will recognize the demand for faster connection and delivery speed, at more competitive pricing...

Hope so, at least.

__________________
What's the most amazing thing you've ever found?
Impossible to say. You see there's something amazing every two or three weeks.

Local Hero (1983)

Tbirdnz

For altered dramatically, read eliminated. No-one here wants to go back to subsidies, not even the farmers but all our markets, thats the US, Europe and Asia all have farming subsidies which we have to compete against. We are also probably the foremost proponents of free trade but that doesn't seem to help us and most countries, read those above, are very protectionist.

Back to topic, all of these state owned enterprises were privatised about 10 years ago. The Government is now working at eliminating Telecoms monopoly similarly along the lines of what UK did to BT. The rail is a no-hoper and for the other two we can only hope.

----------------
Ride on !

bovefrankj

Service and profit do not need to conflict. But in the fields of utilities (which are often monopolies) and also public transport I cannot think of an instance where service has decreased although profits and salaries appear to be astronomical.

trypcil

It's all about regulating the greed, by the use of ethics to maximise minimum malevolence to the majority. This is the responsibility of the governed and a requisite of the governors.

cyclebob

trypcil,
well put!!

Tbirdnz

the responsibility of the governed and a requisite of the governors.

Shouldn't this be the otherway around Tryp, the reponsibility of the governors and the requisit of the governed. We didn't vote them in to to sell off state enterprises cheaply only for them to be asset stripped by predators. We have the requirement of the government to govern in our interests and we expect that.

The problem with most governments is that they are extremely bad at business. That's why they sell of most state enterprises but at least they were affordable and reasonably efficient.

So has British Rail improved bovefrankj ?

---------------
Ride on !

ruscook

While there's no 100% right way to do things in every instance, selling off the farm can have negative consequences.

A classic case of absurdity has occurred here on Oz. Out telecoms provider was a gov't monopoly. The gov't sell a large chunk of it off but still own a major portion of the company. The company is fighting a rear guard action to maintain it's monopoly, thereby inhibiting service improvement.

Recently Telstra has responded by taking the gov't to court (its major owner) over gov't decisions to improve access to infrastructure in regional areas because they don't favour the teleco's monopoly. What a colossal waste of money and resources. If the gov't had retained 100% ownership they could have used the profits to implement a strategic rollout of regional infrastructure, or broken the company up to open up competition. To sell it off in chunks, but as a single entity, has enabled it to exspend considerable resources fighting gov't policy - when the gov't is it's current majority shareholder..... (walks away shaking head) it's all too bizarre!

Russ

__________________
bikes.info web site
My Speed Triple Page
My Sprint Page

trypcil

My point is that we need to expect more from our elected officials. It is up to us to make sure that they behave ethically, the people should have the power to remove officials that don't live up to the behavioral requirements of their office, as dictated by a consensus! That would make the system responsible to us, as opposed to how it is now - which is the problem. Major decisions as per the sell off of state owned organisations would require at least a referenda - ruling and running a country are two separate actions, one might be considered a monarchic style the other - a service rendered for the betterment of all, not just a few! What have your tax dollars given you lately?

bovefrankj

"So has British Rail improved bovefrankj ?"

I would say not but there are bound to be others who would say differently. When a rail ticket ticket from Leeds to London costs something like three times the price of an air ticket from Leeds to Malaga I would say something is wrong.

It isn't just the railways, all public transport is more expensive than travelling by car these days.

Public transport will always depend on subsidies and should never have been deregulated.