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Paris outsourced its water supply to a private company (Suez) a while back, only to witness exactly what the article describes: Rising prices and sinking qualit

Paris outsourced its water supply to a private company (Suez) a while back, only to witness exactly what the article describes: Rising prices and sinking quality. The city finally decided to take the water supply back into its own hands and did not renew a 20 year lease to Suez, creating its own water supply company instead, "Eau de Paris". Already in the first year of its operation, the city was able to decrease water prices by 8 %. Here's a short article in English: http://www.futurepolicy.org/food-and-water/remunicipalisation-of-water-services-paris/ http://www.futurepolicy.org/food-and-water/remunicipalisatio... Wikipedia article about water privatization in France: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Water_privatization_in_France https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Water_privatization_in_France

nostromo 10y ago
Privatization only works in competitive markets. Privatization of a monopoly is almost always a terrible idea. (For what it's worth, water costs have risen much faster than inflation in the US too, where it's primarily managed by local governments. http://imgur.com/a/SNstZ http://imgur.com/a/SNstZ)
- redblacktree 10y ago
  Well, unless you're the guy the government sells the monopoly to. Then it's a fantastic idea.
rayiner 10y ago
If an industry really is a natural monopoly (water probably is), the best structure is probably a regulated private monopoly. The problem is that if you're privatizing a function because you're incompetent at administration (which is usually the case), you're probably not going to be good at regulating either.
- bdavisx 10y ago
  > the best structure is probably a regulated private monopoly I think that needs to be changed to "well regulated private monopoly". When the monopoly starts to unduly influence the regulators then it's no better than an unregulated one.
- the_watcher 10y ago
  > The problem is that if you're privatizing a function because you're incompetent at administration (which is usually the case), you're probably not going to be good at regulating either. This is one of the best and most accurate sentences I have read in awhile.
- tomp 10y ago
  I another very good idea is to have multiple private suppliers, along with publicly owned (but potentially privately managed) infrastructure. At least that's how electricity works in the EU.

nostromo 10y ago

Privatization only works in competitive markets. Privatization of a monopoly is almost always a terrible idea. (For what it's worth, water costs have risen much faster than inflation in the US too, where it's primarily managed by local governments. http://imgur.com/a/SNstZ http://imgur.com/a/SNstZ)

redblacktree 10y ago
Well, unless you're the guy the government sells the monopoly to. Then it's a fantastic idea.

rayiner 10y ago

If an industry really is a natural monopoly (water probably is), the best structure is probably a regulated private monopoly. The problem is that if you're privatizing a function because you're incompetent at administration (which is usually the case), you're probably not going to be good at regulating either.

bdavisx 10y ago
> the best structure is probably a regulated private monopoly I think that needs to be changed to "well regulated private monopoly". When the monopoly starts to unduly influence the regulators then it's no better than an unregulated one.
the_watcher 10y ago
> The problem is that if you're privatizing a function because you're incompetent at administration (which is usually the case), you're probably not going to be good at regulating either. This is one of the best and most accurate sentences I have read in awhile.
tomp 10y ago
I another very good idea is to have multiple private suppliers, along with publicly owned (but potentially privately managed) infrastructure. At least that's how electricity works in the EU.