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The biggest problem is that water is treated as a commercial good instead as a public good the government should take care of. In those parts of Europe where wa

The biggest problem is that water is treated as a commercial good instead as a public good the government should take care of. In those parts of Europe where water has been privatized prices rose and quality went down.

rayiner 8y ago
Exactly the opposite of that is true. All these failing water systems are public, operated by municipal utilities and regulated by the EPA. Private water companies are extremely uncommon in the US; over 90% of Americans get their water from a public utility, while most of the rest are on private wells.
- zzzcpan 8y ago
  No, still not the opposite. If you only have public water systems than only public water systems can fail. Private water companies don't even make sense, as they can only exist as monopolies with the only incentive of squeezing as much profit as possible forever, pushing boundaries on water and service quality to pocket more money, lobbying for weakening of quality standards, etc. It cannot possibly be cheaper and better than fixing regional quality problems through very competitive water filtering market individually (you do know how cheap filtering systems actually are today?).
  - jcranmer 8y ago
    > Private water companies don't even make sense, as they can only exist as monopolies with the only incentive of squeezing as much profit as possible forever, pushing boundaries on water and service quality to pocket more money, lobbying for weakening of quality standards, etc. That's not true. Public water can be just as bad as private water, as you can get turf wars and projects motivated to spend money for the sake of spending money in the public sector more easily than in the public sector. A private water company can be more efficient in sharing backoffice tasks (such as billing) or achieving an economy of scale. What really matters is not the distinction between public and private, but rather the quality and nature of the oversight.
- Tsubasachan 8y ago
  How can an important public utility like water fail? You would think its the most important thing to be funded. The US has a trillion dollar deficit and I sometimes wonder were the hell its all going to.
  - smileysteve 8y ago
    Military spending...
- pedro1976 8y ago
  If you want to see how well privatized water infrastructure works, go to south america: bad water quality and ridiculously high prices. Please enlighten me in what way privatization helps in that area.
  - rayiner 8y ago
    I don’t see how that’s responsive to my point. This is an article about failing water systems in the US, which are almost entirely public.
    - deleted 8y ago
      [deleted]

rayiner 8y ago

Exactly the opposite of that is true. All these failing water systems are public, operated by municipal utilities and regulated by the EPA. Private water companies are extremely uncommon in the US; over 90% of Americans get their water from a public utility, while most of the rest are on private wells.

zzzcpan 8y ago
No, still not the opposite. If you only have public water systems than only public water systems can fail. Private water companies don't even make sense, as they can only exist as monopolies with the only incentive of squeezing as much profit as possible forever, pushing boundaries on water and service quality to pocket more money, lobbying for weakening of quality standards, etc. It cannot possibly be cheaper and better than fixing regional quality problems through very competitive water filtering market individually (you do know how cheap filtering systems actually are today?).
- jcranmer 8y ago
  > Private water companies don't even make sense, as they can only exist as monopolies with the only incentive of squeezing as much profit as possible forever, pushing boundaries on water and service quality to pocket more money, lobbying for weakening of quality standards, etc. That's not true. Public water can be just as bad as private water, as you can get turf wars and projects motivated to spend money for the sake of spending money in the public sector more easily than in the public sector. A private water company can be more efficient in sharing backoffice tasks (such as billing) or achieving an economy of scale. What really matters is not the distinction between public and private, but rather the quality and nature of the oversight.
Tsubasachan 8y ago
How can an important public utility like water fail? You would think its the most important thing to be funded. The US has a trillion dollar deficit and I sometimes wonder were the hell its all going to.
- smileysteve 8y ago
  Military spending...
pedro1976 8y ago
If you want to see how well privatized water infrastructure works, go to south america: bad water quality and ridiculously high prices. Please enlighten me in what way privatization helps in that area.
- rayiner 8y ago
  I don’t see how that’s responsive to my point. This is an article about failing water systems in the US, which are almost entirely public.
  - deleted 8y ago
    [deleted]