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All are efficient (When Germany in the 1990s sold off is Post Office to Private Company, prices went up, service went down). SSA has overhead of about 2%, Private investment Companies have an overhead of 10-15% (part of this is a Government Entity does not have to make sure non "customers" uses the services, in private Companies most of the cost of overhead is making sure the claim is from someone covered by that private company, not one of its competitors, with Government run SSA and Medicare that is not a concern, the few people not eligible are so few it is more cost effective to treat them then it is to find out they are not covered, this is the chief reason Single Payer was pushed, it is cheaper then having several companies making sure their coverage goes only to their customers).
One of the Classic Situations are highways, while most roads are built by private companies, the roads are owned, maintained and kept clean by the State. Why? Private Enterprise did it for centuries but could NOT figure out how to make a Profit over roads anyone could use (railroads were restricted to trains owned by the Railroad, so were profitable, but by being a monopoly NOT do to being efficiently run). Everyone uses highways, attempts to charge fees for use almost always failed prior to 1900 for people on foot and uses horses would bypass tollbooths, harder for people in motor vehicles, but still possible.
The Post Office is always given as an example of Government inefficient, but US First Class Mail is still the most efficient in the World. Parcel Post suffered, not from any inherent Government inefficiency, but by US Congress requiring it to have a office in almost any town. UPS does NOT have that requirement and does not have costs tied in with such offices. Even today the USPS does almost all Individual to individual parcels while UPS does most large Shippers to individual shippers (Both UPS and USPS do both, but it is easier for a private individual, who ships once or twice a year, to use USPS then UPS). I will NOT go into the fact the Post Office for Decades not only had to pay for its utility service, but the utility service used by the Federal Courts almost always tied in with the Post Office till the 1970s (and still are unless the Postal Service has abandoned the combined Post Office and Court house built prior to 1970.
Just some points, Government can be, and often are, more efficient then Private Companies (the Postal Service has used private truckers for decades to ship the mail, and one of the many subsidies for the airlines is space available transportation of mail provided by the Postal Service, another restriction imposed on the USPS by Congress.
The biggest restrictions on any Government owned or Controlled business is rarely the business being run less efficiently. As shown above it is the RESTRICTIONS imposed on that Government business by the Government that Controls it (and similar situations over with private business operates in an area of Special Concern for the Government). The problem is rarely Government owned vs Privately owned, but hoe much freedom of action the provider of the Service has. In the US the Restrictions to government owned businesses generally goes with concern on how the service is being provided. Thus it is rare for such businesses, once sold off by the Government, to do any better as a private Company as a Government owned Business (most do worse, except when assets are sold, then the business makes money selling the assets till the assets are gone, then goes bankrupt (Forests are an example of this sold by the State Cheap, the trees are cut down making huge profit for the buyer, which then abandons the land. The State has to use Tax Dollars to fix up the area at a huge loss to the state, but the buyer shows a record profit.
Fannie Mae is the Classic Situation. Fannie Mae was founded in 1938 to buy 20 year mortgages and bundle them to sell at a profit. Before Fannie Mae 20 year Mortgages were rare, almost all mortgages were one year in duration,it had to be renewed or paid off every year (Some of the Westerns of the 1930s uses this as a plot device, for it was that common even then). Fannie Mae made 20 year mortgages to become the most common type of Mortgages. Private Bankers said it would notwork, but worked like a dream in the 1940s, 1950s and 1960s. In 1968, as the cost of Vietnam became excessive, Fannie Mae was sold off to private Hands. The Federal Government had a huge say in Fannie Mae till Reagan, who cut the last ties. Thus as a Government owned business Fannie Mae did well for 40 years, then 40 years of existing as private company came into play. What had been a very profitable Government owned and later Government Controlled Business became a bankrupt Private Company. Why? As a Government owned business long term profits were more important then profits this year, as a private Company, that reversed and doomed it.
Some things are better run by the Government for the Government is concerned not only today, but 50 years from today. Private companies work best when it comes to max profits today. The right wing likes to emphasis max profits today, thus Government is less efficient. As seen above that is NOT true, more a product of right wing dogma then reality, but is repeated over and over again, hoping people will accept it as true despite the evidence against it.
As to the Former Soviet Union, the US realized it would collapse in the 1940s, you can NOT spend 40% of your GNP on Defense and NOT go broke (The cut off for severe harm to an economy is 10%, all military spending is harmful, but gets worse as the percentage goes up, 10% is the point where severe harm starts).
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