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this post was submitted on 02 Sep 2024
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Yes, next question.
Ayup, privatization is always a terrible idea!
"Always" is a pretty strong word here. In some cases this is true, but in others it's not.
For example, if you live in an area where all of the public schools are terrible, you're going to want to look for other options. If the private schools in your area are way better (and hopefully affordable) then you would want to send your kids there. Public schools can also compare/see what private schools are doing that's working, and update their policy/curriculum to improve themselves.
Privatizing public libraries is a terrible idea and is currently happening at an alarming rate in the U.S.
Removing all privatization from the entire economy is where we end up with command economies or communism which means that we end up with a lot of monopolies. There isn't much of an incentive for innovation in those economies. Then you're either living under some crazy dictatorship, or the country is falling apart and they are forced to change how their economy works.
Privatization helps people who can afford to not be in a situation where they are choosing between only shitty options. The point of a (good) public system is that it's a consistent, good baseline for ALL people regardless of their socio-economic status.
So in your example, sure, if you can afford it you can put your kid into private school or simply move but what about your neighbors? Can they as well? Society functions best when everyone has fair equity.
It's not a perfect system by far and I'm not arguing that.
But we've already seen how removing all privatization from an economy leads to worse outcomes because we have less options, less innovation, and more monopolies.
In my opinion we need to find a balance between the two systems that works best for everyone. Arguing for either extreme doesn't make sense (in my opinion). I would rather see if we can come up with some other solutions that are better than the current system.
…from having no money
…if you have money
…funded
…and your money
…like having money
…like by enacting a policy of having money
Privatization isn’t allowing a private options, it’s selling the public one. If public schools suck we shouldn’t sell them to a profit seeking company
Yep, I definitely misunderstood that. Thanks for pointing that out.
No problem. Privatization has a long history of being sold to us in very positive and plausible ways. At the end of the day when private options are better than public ones there are questions that need to be asked about the public options, usually regarding if we’re funding it properly and if we’re allowing private industry to take all the profitable parts of a necessary venture and leaving the unprofitable aspects to the public options.
In general I’m much more hesitant to allow private options to compete with public ones because of the points there. That profit is coming from somewhere and while sometimes it’s innovation providing a better product, that’s rarely the case unless the public option is so chronically underfunded it can’t run efficiently, and in that case I think it needs funding.
So in short, fund Amtrak.