If we allow water privatization this beautiful water collection system would become illegal, or at best highly taxed . Think corporate oil, pollution, para-militaries, rationing, high cost and ultimately water wars. Think water trading and a water bubble in our already specious stock market.We need water to live, at minimum one liter/day. This is not a commodity, but a human right. Instead of greed and waste, how about conservation?
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Let's see...public toilets, public schools, public roads, public phones, and public transportation. Name one that isn't a grotesquely mismanaged disaster. Para-militaries? Higher costs? Oh my sweet Christ- you might want to check your lovingly government-processed water for hallucinogens. Privatization works *shockingly* well roughly 99% of the time. Expect those who are financially dependent on the city water bureaucracy to be opposed to privatization. Can you blame them? The greenies will have us all drinking our own urine if they get their way.
ReplyDeleteThere are a lot of people who feel privatization is the answer to everything. I would hate to put our supply of water in the hands of a for profit organization. A human can't live for more than a week without water before death ensues. I do not want a greedy CEO having that much control over my life. Just look at how much the parking meter rates have increased when they became privatized. We get the same service but are paying a much higher rate. Is it exploitation or extortion; it is the result of a monopolistic control over on-street parking.
ReplyDeleteGovernment was created for the public good. Civilizations are defined by the governments they are ruled by. Governments create organizations to protect its populace. The FAA is a publicly managed authority that has one of the best records of any organization. Everyday thousands of flights are completed without incident through a partnership of public and private systems. Just look at how often we hear of derailments of privately owned trains over privately controlled rails. We have the department of transportation to thank for the airlines' safety record. They establish the maintenance procedures and make sure the airlines don't "cheap out" on maintenance. Google the news and you will find out that some airlines were flying planes out of country (http://www.scienceblog.com/cms/faa-aircraft-inspections-and-aircraft-delays-15991.html) to get repaired by non-FAA certified mechanics.
Look at the banking collapse. All of the mortgage backed securities were rated highly by Standards & Poor, Fitch Ratings and Moody's. Where were all the genius MBA's when the ratings were handed out. Now the taxpayers had to bail out the banks, we should have sent the bankers to the payday check loan office for a 35% interest rate loan. After all they irresponsibly mismanaged their finances and they are highly educated.
Privatization doesn't work "shockingly well". Private industry is driven strictly by greed and only greed. There must be oversight applied or else they will run amok. And where did you drag up that hallucinogens in the water supply statement - from that famous pharmacologist Rush Limbaugh - he's the largest source of those hallucinogens?
As far as your statement about public toilets, public schools, etc, have you ever filed a health insurance claim without pages of forms and then an argument about the validity of the claim? There are death panels already it's called a "denial of claims".
What about the cable TV installer? How come they can never commit to more than a four hour window when they will visit? Don't they have cellphones and GPS? The cable man is just as bad as the US postal service or the DMV and yet you don't hear jokes about their "on-time" efficiency.
Nothing works well 99% of the time, neither private or public organizations. It's just that private industry runs TV commercials to brainwash you into thinking they are so infallible. If you were born in 1968 you might be too young to remember the scores of tobacco CEO's who testified under oath that tobacco smoke does not cause cancer along with hundreds of hours to television commercials brainwashing you believe that claim. The strategy worked for a while.
Some things should be kept in public control. I think basic needs qualify - water being the most essential of those. If we privatize water, will rates go up just like the parking meters do? Will I stop getting water when it's too cold? I can't take those risks when its such an essential resource for every single person on this planet!
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