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I disagree with this. There are many spaces that can be maintained either publicly or privately that when privatized don't always result in the best outcomes f
by save_ferris 7y ago
I disagree with this.
There are many spaces that can be maintained either publicly or privately that when privatized don't always result in the best outcomes for consumers. A good example are private utilities.
I had a relative that sold his house in a municipality in east Texas and moved to a new development in central Texas. He intentionally chose a house just outside the nearest municipality to avoid paying local taxes. It all seemed great until he got his first water bill from the private water company, only to find that his water bill was astronomically higher (2.5-3x more). His other private utilities were a little higher than what he paid previously, but he was particularly upset about the water.
The water company isn't some multinational corporation, but they have a profit incentive, zero competition, and they control the water infrastructure, so the community there doesn't have much leverage in that scenario.
- Uhhrrr 7y agoI find this thoroughly unpersuasive. A 2.5x water bill in exchange for no municipal taxes and no zoning laws and other picayune regulations?
- save_ferris 7y agoI have no idea what the zoning situation is for him. The bottom line in his case was that he thought he was saving money by staying out of the municipalities, only to find that his total cost of living really didn't change at all. On top of that, public utilities are accountable to the public, while private utilities are accountable to shareholders. There were no obvious economic reasons for the incredible disparity in price, other than one utility had an incentive to profit while the other didn't.