Reply to: This recession demands that we employ logic and spend our way out of it

[Mich the Tester]

Which is exactly the problem, and IMO wholly forseeable.. Competition arises through choice.. As a consumer I don't choose Thames Trains over Southwestern I use which ever company happens to be providing the service on the line/route that I require. I have no choice in this ergo there is no competition.

The Swiss railways run efficiently with no competition on mainlines and wile the main railway company is owned by the federal and regional governments.

[Ravello]

Sadly, the envisaged competition on railways hasn't materialised.

Which is exactly the problem, and IMO wholly forseeable.. Competition arises through choice.. As a consumer I don't choose Thames Trains over Southwestern I use which ever company happens to be providing the service on the line/route that I require. I have no choice in this ergo there is no competition.

[Doggy Styles]

Yes but i would rather have a train running 20% less efficiently if it was going to cost 50% less!

Privatisation shifts the goal from providing service to generating profit, and with that comes exploitation of the customer base.

Privatisation shifts from monopoly to competition, which in most cases benefits the customer. I moved my electricity and gas last year and saved quite a bit of money as a result.

Sadly, the envisaged competition on railways hasn't materialised. As you suggest, it was probably a privatisation too far. However, I have no rose-tinted specs about what it was like before - the government were no better at running it and we had more strikes. Except it worked pretty well on Saturday mornings, when I went off to footy.

[Mich the Tester]

My apologies, I forgot that we live in a corrupt-free and honest financial environment today.

You're right, but there's no need to encourage even more fraud.

[minestrone]

In Scotland we still have a public water company unlike in England where they are all private, as you will know.

English water may taste like tulip but it has less bacteria in it, the quality of our rivers and beaches is poor because we do less sewage treatment and still we pay much more for it also Scottish Water still gets subsidies from the tax payer.

When it comes to private Vs public there really is no contest, private on the main produces higher quality for less cost.

[ChimpMaster]

That would lead to massive fraud with people administering deliberately undervalued assets overseas.

My apologies, I forgot that we live in a corrupt-free and honest financial environment today.

[Solidec]

Who remembers how long it took to get a telephone installed before privatisation?

Mind you, I remember the bloody trains before privatisation too - they might have been cr@p but they aren't much better now.

Yes but i would rather have a train running 20% less efficiently if it was going to cost 50% less!

Privatisation shifts the goal from providing service to generating profit, and with that comes exploitation of the customer base.

[Doggy Styles]

Who remembers how long it took to get a telephone installed before privatisation?

Mind you, I remember the bloody trains before privatisation too - they might have been cr@p but they aren't much better now.

[Solidec]

We also need to stop big companies profiteering from services that are essential.

Day to day banking, energy supply, rail transport.

Tehse things are essentials, without which the country would grind to a crushing halt. private companies should not be running these shows.

just look at the record year on year profits by energy firms, whilst consumer prices for gas and Electricity seem to inch ever skywars.

Same for rail fares.

Its a big giant CON

[Mich the Tester]

They should cap an individual's monetary/asset value at a specified amount, say $1Bn.

That way, people are still motivated to achieve, and for 99.9% of the world the amount is big enough for them to be motivated long enough.

For those few that hit $1Bn in value (stocks/property/cash etc), they must give the rest away to society (i.e. not government!) or their business profits should be given to the community in general.

That would lead to massive fraud with people administering deliberately undervalued assets overseas.

[ChimpMaster]

They should cap an individual's monetary/asset value at a specified amount, say $1Bn.

That way, people are still motivated to achieve, and for 99.9% of the world the amount is big enough for them to be motivated long enough.

For those few that hit $1Bn in value (stocks/property/cash etc), they must give the rest away to society (i.e. not government!) or their business profits should be given to the community in general.

[ratewhore]

Something I have been saying for a long time. And was the cause of the great depression in my book.

Is your book published?

[BrilloPad]

Actually the problem has been a skewed wealth distribution for the last 10-15 years.

There is clearly enough monetary value in the worrld, its just that the top percentile of the wealthy elite have a disproortionate amount holed up in their offshore bank accounts. There has been a steady drain of wealth over the eyars from joe public into the hands of the very few, and these guys have no intention of spending it.

We don't actually need aggregrate growth, if you average the official growth forcast over the last 20 eyars, its been way up on the historical longer term average.

We need ways of stopping that 1-2% of the financial elite from accumulating the 90%+ of the worlds wealth.

Something I have been saying for a long time. And was the cause of the great depression in my book.

[DimPrawn]

We need ways of stopping that 1-2% of the financial elite from accumulating the 90%+ of the worlds wealth.

You'll never stop me!

[Solidec]

Actually the problem has been a skewed wealth distribution for the last 10-15 years.

There is clearly enough monetary value in the worrld, its just that the top percentile of the wealthy elite have a disproortionate amount holed up in their offshore bank accounts. There has been a steady drain of wealth over the eyars from joe public into the hands of the very few, and these guys have no intention of spending it.

We don't actually need aggregrate growth, if you average the official growth forcast over the last 20 eyars, its been way up on the historical longer term average.

We need ways of stopping that 1-2% of the financial elite from accumulating the 90%+ of the worlds wealth.