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> whether it's always better to have government do things in those cases. if there's gonna be waste, i don't want my tax dollars to be wasted. I don't care if

by chii 3y ago

> whether it's always better to have government do things in those cases. if there's gonna be waste, i don't want my tax dollars to be wasted. I don't care if private dollars are wasted, since it's not me taking the hit.

trog 3y ago
> if there's gonna be waste, i don't want my tax dollars to be wasted. I don't care if private dollars are wasted, since it's not me taking the hit. Well, it depends on what it is - if it's a service that you consume, even indirectly, you /are/ taking the hit, because the price you pay will reflect the costs of the company providing the service. Using the example of energy again - if you're in a place where the energy production is fully privatised, any waste that happens there might impact shareholders more, but you can absolutely bet some of it will be felt by customers.
ivan_gammel 3y ago
I have bad news for you: in a for-profit property market with increasing margins your money are effectively wasted, because the higher the prices, the more employees in the public sector pay. To fill the vacancies government has to pay more and more, effectively redistributing your money to landlords and construction industry. Inefficiency of this spending is much higher than that of any state-owned enterprise.
- chii 3y ago
  > because the higher the prices, the more employees in the public sector pay i dont' quite get the rationale for this claim - are you saying that higher property prices somehow increases public sector pay? And why is public sector job vacancy have anything to do with the price of real estate?
  - ivan_gammel 3y ago
    According to the recent data of Berlin government, high property prices and scarcity of affordable apartments are one of the reasons for labor shortage in public sector here. In order to fill the vacancies they need to significantly increase the salaries increasing burden for taxpayers. IMO causal link here is pretty obvious: if a teacher cannot afford living in the city, they won’t work in that city as teachers and either find a different job or leave. The same thing is happening everywhere in the world, where teacher or social salaries aren’t high enough.

by chii 3y ago

trog 3y ago

> if there's gonna be waste, i don't want my tax dollars to be wasted. I don't care if private dollars are wasted, since it's not me taking the hit. Well, it depends on what it is - if it's a service that you consume, even indirectly, you /are/ taking the hit, because the price you pay will reflect the costs of the company providing the service. Using the example of energy again - if you're in a place where the energy production is fully privatised, any waste that happens there might impact shareholders more, but you can absolutely bet some of it will be felt by customers.

ivan_gammel 3y ago

I have bad news for you: in a for-profit property market with increasing margins your money are effectively wasted, because the higher the prices, the more employees in the public sector pay. To fill the vacancies government has to pay more and more, effectively redistributing your money to landlords and construction industry. Inefficiency of this spending is much higher than that of any state-owned enterprise.

chii 3y ago
> because the higher the prices, the more employees in the public sector pay i dont' quite get the rationale for this claim - are you saying that higher property prices somehow increases public sector pay? And why is public sector job vacancy have anything to do with the price of real estate?
- ivan_gammel 3y ago
  According to the recent data of Berlin government, high property prices and scarcity of affordable apartments are one of the reasons for labor shortage in public sector here. In order to fill the vacancies they need to significantly increase the salaries increasing burden for taxpayers. IMO causal link here is pretty obvious: if a teacher cannot afford living in the city, they won’t work in that city as teachers and either find a different job or leave. The same thing is happening everywhere in the world, where teacher or social salaries aren’t high enough.