GUBU
An Irish woman's social, political and domestic commentary
Monday, August 18, 2003  

Outage in the US

Call me old fashioned, but I always thought that governments were elected and taxes were paid so that basic public services could be provided. Public transport, water, electricity. Services like these should not be expected to make a profit. The profit to society will not appear on any balance sheet but by the creation of an environment in which business and personal lives can prosper.

Surely the inability of the US to provide adequate electricity supplies to its citizens is all the evidence one needs to rethink privatisation ( as if Britain's train system hadn't told us that already). Through financial disaster in CA and techonological on the west coast, it is now clear that privatisation is a disaster.

And here in Ireland we propose to copy these disasters. From the ESB to the buses, not to mention the sneaky goings on in the VHI (premium increases despite increased profits), governments are obsessed with privatisation because they get handy short term windfalls for the Exchequer and the management make a fortune on the buy outs. What eejits are writing the contracts for the management so that they are personally financially incentivised to go private?

posted by Sarah | 15:00 0 comments
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