8 thoughts on “Weekend reflections”

  1. Gee, that spinning heel kick (or whatever it’s called) on that little clip in your alternative picture link is a ripper.

  2. How can we the people support the privatisation of all public services, whether they’re making money or not?

    Once everything is sold off, the people will have nothing to complain about which is probably a good thing for small government ideologues as it will be the private company’s concern and none of the govt’s business. But then Politicians will raise their perks and pay for it by raising taxes and/or given the current global circumstances overspend on the military which also means a raise in taxes.

    Taxes are a good thing when used in servicing the population domestically with health, education, etc but to pay off debts because the government made a stupid decision – its silly. Who does the rise in taxes hurt most (most of the time) the people on the bottom.

    The main reason for those that support privatisation is because the government shouldn’t OWN or be involved in it. Not being involved in it I can accept but the government don’t own anything, that would be like treating the government as a company or corporation which it is not. Supposed government ownership is public ownership. When something important breaks the govt can step in and fix it whereas if that privatised area isn’t making a profit it’ll cut its losses and people will lose service.

    I could go into my thoughts on taxation and I’m no economist but it was privatisation and the effects of privatisation I wanted to talk about.

  3. I think it has been shown fairly well in the past that privatisation of a monopoly tends to hurt more than harm.

    So, good news for our copper wire phone network. 😛

  4. This mostly comes down to human nature. The obvious ideal solution is to eliminate politicians and their taxes too, providing for the needs in other ways. With privatisation, the means adopted are harmful, not the fact of being private per se. Consider what actually happened in Russia fifteen years ago, and also compare pre-nationalised British railways with what was delivered by privatising them (and bear in mind that government demands in the World Wars had forced them to run down capital – the true run down state of the railway system wasn’t a consequence of market operations).

    Getting practical again, the thing to do is look out for a safe transitional approach that doesn’t throw babies out with bathwater, then keep assessing progress along it rather than focussing only on the ideal future. But don’t forget it, all the same.

  6. Nope. If I was Bolt you’d expect I’d have more to say on the current Bolt-dumping thread.

    Of course, I could be sneakily making you think I am not Bolt by not commenting, and even more sneakily making you think I am not Bolt by pointing out that I could be sneakily making you think I am not Bolt by not commenting, and even more sneakily making you think I am not Bolt by pointing out that I could be sneakily making you think I am not Bolt by pointing out that I could be sneakily making you think I am not Bolt by not commenting, end even more sneakily….

  7. Peter Costello has said that Australia will have to sign up to a global carbon trading scheme to tackle climate change.

    “I think the ground is changing,” he told ABC television.

    “… and I think from Australia’s point of view if the world starts moving towards a carbon trading system, we can’t be left out of that.

    “I think the weakness up until now has been that key consumers such as China and India have not been in this.

    “But as the world moves towards a carbon trading system, Australia obviously can’t stand out against the rest of the world.”

    Presumably Costello is saying this on the basis of advice from his department, The Treasury.

    It’s been a big week. The times sure a-changing.

  8. Privatisation gone mad!

    I just found this on the energex website:

    ******************************

    “government sale of retail energy assets

    The Queensland Government is currently in the process of selling its retail energy assets. This sale includes the retail business of ENERGEX (Sun Retail, formerly ENERGEX Retail) and part of the retail business of Ergon Energy (now Powerdirect Australia).

    Your retailer’s role is to buy and sell energy, provide your bill and deliver associated customer services. The network part of the business, which looks after the poles and wires and physically distributes electricity to your home or business, will remain in Government ownership.”

    *******************************

    Looks to me like the government is stuck maintaining the grid while a private company gets to charge you whatever they feel like. Now that has to be a good deal for all queenslanders!

    There was a time when government used taxation revenue to provide and maintain infrastructure and public services. There was a time when government was the guardian of public assets. By being able to remember those days I guess I’m showing my age!

Leave a comment