Saturday, June 23, 2012

Bamanos!


That is, if you have a horse in the whole privatization debate.

NYT via P-G, Paul Krugman

(not his usual Angela Merkel trolling)
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4 comments:

  1. AnonymousJune 24, 2012 at 2:39 PM

    Let me start out by saying that I am one of those socially liberally and economically conservative voters. However, more and more I think that any time I hear "privatize" or even "public private" partnership I think of bad things. This my friends is the essence of bad government. I am becoming a strong believer in government should do the things government does and private sector should do the thing the private sector does. Deciding where to draw the line is the tricky part. But despite the fact that everyone likes to use the words "partnership" and "collaborate," when it comes to taxpayer money and private profits they should be dirty words. When private companies get cozy with government it is difficult to pry them apart and separate the dollars. We need a new direction. Government is ok owning things and ok running programs. Likewise, private capital and investment is a good thing and so is profit. Just be careful mixing them all together and expecting a special brew.

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  2. Bram ReichbaumJune 24, 2012 at 5:47 PM

    I don't like to make them "dirty words", but I certainly agree with "be careful".

    Especially when entire er, subsections of the wider public sector go in for privatization en mass like prisons and military support. A lot of times I think it's because we want them to do things that government can't as easily do with plausible deniability. In Pittsburgh, why are all the high school kids with behavioral issues going to a privately managed school that is non-unionized?

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  3. AnonymousJune 24, 2012 at 8:14 PM

    I'm just glad the PG found some decent opinion columns to repost. The in-house group is beyond tired.

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  4. Bram ReichbaumJune 24, 2012 at 11:19 PM

    Brian O'Neill still has a pretty fair batting average.

    But yeah, they could stand to inject some competitiveness into that market.

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