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I always use train infrastructure as examples of infra that should remain public, as it's so essential for modern day cities. Privatisation seems to inevitably

by ehnto 3y ago

I always use train infrastructure as examples of infra that should remain public, as it's so essential for modern day cities. Privatisation seems to inevitably lead to service degradation and reduced utility, even corruption. But my favourite example of trains done right is Japan, and to my surprise, their expansive rail network is dozens of private companies. It turned a lot of my assumptions upside down. I still don't think we should privatise core rail infra, but obviously it can be done right. So we can at least try to do that.

Jochim 3y ago
> But my favourite example of trains done right is Japan, and to my surprise, their expansive rail network is dozens of private companies. It turned a lot of my assumptions upside down. My impression is that in Japan, there are social repercussions for people who work for a company that acts against society. Which is why we see public apologies from executives when things go wrong. On the other hand, your ability to fuck over wider society seems to be a point of pride in many western countries. See the various scandals in the UK over COVID contracts, or PPP fraud in the US. I'd like to see proper consequences for those people, of the kind that gave us the term Boycott at the very least.