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> Mutuals work well for utilities because they're not required to invest for the long term ...uhm, shouldn't utilities be required to invest for the long-term?
by DaiPlusPlus 7y ago
> Mutuals work well for utilities because they're not required to invest for the long term
...uhm, shouldn't utilities be required to invest for the long-term?
- JumpCrisscross 7y ago> ...uhm, shouldn't utilities be required to invest for the long-term? The different between should and did are incentives. Utilities have no incentive to invest. (They do have an incentive to spend, which if enabled by politicians, generally yields pricey, useless contracts for cronies.) A good case study is in wireless providers in the U.S. and EU. American providers are private; European ones are more utilities. The utilities are cheaper; their CAPEX (and executive compensation) is lower. American cities thus end up with--on average--faster, more-expensive service than European cities. There isn't a better solution, just different ones for different goals.
- icebraining 7y ago> A good case study is in wireless providers in the U.S. and EU. American providers are private; European ones are more utilities. European wireless internet providers are not private? That's news to me, can you give me some examples? I don't think that would even be permitted under EU competition law, which forces member states to create markets in those areas.