Privatization v. collectivism

Both Social Security and Medicare are collective approaches to social issues.  The opposite of collectivism is privatization. Certainly collectivism is common in socialistic societies, but it is also common in liberal democracies.

Collectivism--An economic system in which the means of production and distribution are owned and controlled by the people collectively

Privatization--The transfer of a company or organization from government to private ownership and control.  

For example, when the Republicans perceived a security problem with underpaid airport security guards, George W. Bush nationalized or collectivized airport security with the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) under Homeland Security.

If Obama has done this, the Republicans would be screaming about socialized airport security!

There have been government services like trash collection than can be privatized, but many services cannot.

The government can best manage the water supply in a community and the power grid. When the electrical system has been privatized, public watch dog groups such as commissions have to be formed to regulate the industry and make sure the electrical rates reflect market conditions.

A private power company is essentially a monopoly that must be regulated. Of course, the GOP would prefer unregulated private monopolies.

The power companies in Florida were recently caught trying to get the private Blackberry pins from state regulators so they could communicate privately with the regulators and bypass the state's Blackberry servers. The servers would archive a record of any messages between regulators and lobbyists. 

Recently, the State of Florida approved 25 per cent increases in power bills to pay for nuclear reactors that need to be built. Of course, as a taxpayer, it is unlikely a citizen's power bill will be cut once these reactors are online.

It is also unlikely that the power company will send a rebate check for financing their new reactors once he work is completed.

The US medical system, which is private system that provides excellent medical services, but at twice the price of the other industrial nations of the world.

Because there are so many private hands in medical care, many general practice physicians will not take private insurance. Insurance companies now write customized policies for each company they sell to. Doctors have to double their staffs to handle the maze of insurance claims.

Almost all doctors, who aren't wingnuts,  prefer the centralized approach of Medicare that pays the doctors and asks questions later if there are any claims issues.

The private insurance companies, on the other hand, take they approach, "How can we avoid paying this claim.

Recently a urologist told the Major, who has Medicare and Tricare for Life as secondary insurance, that all of his doctors would love him (because they get paid).

Initially, privatization may be cheaper, but in the long run it can become more expensive. When the government broke AT&T up, many small telephone companies flourished for a couple of years, but then the winners started buying up the losers.

The Baby Bells or Regional Bells became more powerful and AT&T less so. Wikkpedia notes the status of the Baby Bells today:

• Ameritech — (acquired by Sothern Bell (SBC) in 1999)
• Bell Atlantic — (acquired GTE in 2000 and changed its name to Verizon)
• BellSouth — (acquired by AT&T Inc. in 2006)
• NYNEX — (acquired by Bell Atlantic (Verizon) in 1996)
• Pacific Telesis — (acquired by SBC (Sothern Bell) in 1997)
• Southwestern Bell — (changed its name to SBC in 1995; acquired AT&T Corp. in 2005 and changed its name to AT&T Inc.)
• U S West — (acquired by Qwest in 2000)

Did this breakup spawn new technology? The big change was the development of Voice over IP (VOIP) which meant you could make phone calls over the Internet. Cellular phone networks also sprung up.

Did our phone bill go down. No, it went up and Rightardia dumped our land lines with Verizon and used VOIP form BrightHouse (Time Warner). We also tried Verizon Cable for a while, but it was a nightmare. We went back to BrightHouse.

What are the advantages of privatization? According to Wiki Answers.com:

Advantages:

1. The Basic advantage in privatization is accurateness and commitment towards the service as they private organizations are very much concerned about the profits they make ultimately which depend on the quality of service being provided by them and the public response to it.
2. Privatization generates more revenue compared to government enterprises, thus govt can indirectly earn a bit more by leasing out enterprises to private organizations.
3. Customer support and satisfaction basically is of much interest in private enterprises comparatively.

Disadvantages:

1. The biggest threat is reliability. There is nothing that backs up the private organizations, where as government can back up its enterprises easily in terms of funds. There are more chances of bankruptcy in private orgs where are 0 to few in govt orgs.
2. The quality of service may be compromised. 
3. Some departments have social responsibilities which can be done only by government like police department, fire department and traffic management.

Arguments for nationalisation or collectivization:

1. The public benefits from economies of scale (Bigger is better) which means that the services to consumers is at a relatively lower cost than if the public had a number of small firms. A monopoly owned, run and controlled by the government will stop consumers being exploited.
2. The government can manage the economy by controlling the important industries.
3. The government can invest money and make their service more efficient.
4. Companies owned and run by the people for the people take social costs (pollution etc.) into account and the profit goes back to the people. 

For example. the Veterans Administration has a single payer system for it pharmaceuticals. All of the pharmaceutical corporations must compete for the VA contracts which drives the cost of drugs down. The VA then resells or provide the medications to veteran at a very low cost.

The Canadian health hare system uses the same approach for it citizens.

Rightardia would point out that workers are treated better in governmental organizations. The pay may be higher, the workers are likely to receive an pension and the worker may be able to join a union. There are more union workers today in the government than in private enterprise.

In private enterprise, the CEO and executives may make several hundred times what the average worker makes.  Workers can be fired 'at will" because of their age or earnings.

Is anyone surprised that the Tea Baggers are going after government employees after the financial and mortgages industries collapsed because of corporate corruption?

This is a good example of Republican class warfare  which is central to the GOP's fixation on privatization. Privatization greatly benefits the most affluent Americans. It is far less beneficial to typical American workers.

source: http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/collectivism

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