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Telecoms ARE under private companies in Europe... also here we have full-speed fiber internet... for $30/month, not $150 like in the US...

• anthk 2y ago
  I'm from Spain, I know it pretty well. When telecos were a state monopoly, long distance calls were horrible, very expensive. And no flat rates for Internet in late 90's even with ISDN, until DSL I think. Once the telecomms where liberalised, prices plummeted down with new ISP's everyhwere. OTOH, healthcare from private companies are just good for very trivial surgeries, such as lumps or some minor aestethic surgery if you are in a hurry. For the rest, public healthcare it's far better.
  • oulipo 2y ago
    Yes, I mean that's how we do it in Europe... it's always more or less some liberalism for economical stuff, with strong state guards to avoid them trying to ripoff consumers, and public schools and healthcare, as those are our crown jewels and we don't want to let stupid businesses trash them
    • DarkWiiPlayer 2y ago
      Sometimes it can help to have a state-provided option to set a baseline that the free market needs to beat in order to attract customers. Some things are just natural oligopolies and the danger of exploitation can be mitigated by just having an alternative that isn't trying to optimise for profit.