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Why would I want government to do it, when private companies like FedEx or Amazon can do it better, faster and cheaper?
by xyzzyz 5y ago
Why would I want government to do it, when private companies like FedEx or Amazon can do it better, faster and cheaper?
- dredmorbius 5y agoPrivate companies deliver network services "better, faster, and cheaper" by cherry-picking the economically-viable aspects of service, and leaving the noneconomic segments to either the public sector or to be unserved at all. Universal service --- whether telegraph, rail, telephone, air, postal service, or data networking --- doesn't have that option. It serves both the dense, high-margin zones and the low-density, low-value outlying regions, because it has the interest of the common weal as a whole, not merely profit. Worse, the private sector then attempts to change legislation and regulation to impose greater burdens on the public-sector services they compete with (as with USPS pension liability funding obligations). Government-run postal services are tremendously efficient, effective, fast, and reliable ... at least until they became actively sabotaged from within.
- JohnFen 5y ago> when private companies like FedEx or Amazon can do it better, faster and cheaper? Because they don't.