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That's actually the opposite of my experience when it comes to natural monopolies. Specifically, that publicly-owned water/electrical utilities have: 1. lower
by labcomputer 5y ago
That's actually the opposite of my experience when it comes to natural monopolies. Specifically, that publicly-owned water/electrical utilities have:
1. lower prices
2. better, more responsive customer service
3. higher reliability
Just look at LADWP and Silicon Valley Power compared to PG&E and SoCal Edison in California. All four a subject to the same regulations, but the two municipal utilities are an order of magnitude better than the private ones.
State-run enterprises are bad if you would otherwise have a competitive market. But here's the thing: electrical utilities and ISPs are not in competitive markets.
- zajio1am 5y agoI agree that private natural monopolies are bad and publicly-owned utilities are better. But i disagree that ISPs are natural monopolies. There are not really comparable to water or electricity - you can easily have multiple overlapping distribution networks or passive/lower-layer infrastructure leased per-subscriber. Just have public setup that encourages competition instead one that discourages that.