Privatization

 

Anything You Can Do

Anything you can do, I can do better,
I can do anything better than you

No, you can't
Yes, I can
No, you can't
Yes, I can!

Anything you can be
I can be greater, 
sooner or later
I'm greater than you

Can private companies do better than governments?

Before 1998,  for 18 years I was employed by governments.  Since 1998, I have been employed by a private firm selling its services to those governments.  Thus I am not asking whether there are services that governments can obtain from private companies or else I would be a hypocrite.  But when I offered those services, the action was ultimately taken by a federal, state, or local government.

But there are services that are offered exclusively by governments, like armies, postal delivery, prisons, law enforcement, fire fighting, education, libraries, etc.  Should those services be offered by private companies?   It certainly seems like they are cheaper than government in many cases.  When I was in government service between 1992 and 1998, I served in an administration that was convinced that anything a government did, a private company could do better. IOW, all government services should be privatized.  This included road construction and road upkeep, which was my government department.  The government functions seemed to devolve to just purchasing these services.

But the USDOT took the step of saying, not with our money you don’t.  They took action to decertify our state transportation department because they felt that the procurement officers were no longer capable of telling whether their federal standards were being followed or we were simply being lied to by those private companies.  If those private companies were cheaper because they were smarter, then the government should of course pay to become smarter.  But if those private companies were ignoring acceptable standards, or paying their employees or contractors below fair compensation, or ignoring laws, didn’t this merely make the government complicit in those actions.  And there is that little thing called profit.  Public governments do not have to make a profit, private companies do.

Public governments also must offer services to all of its citizens, and not arbitrarily turn away anyone. Private companies can decide to not ever offer services to anyone, or only offer services under certain conditions. Like not delivering on weekends, or cutting hours.  Private armies can hire criminals.  Are those actions that governments should emulate?  They should be better, not just cheaper!