Comment on UK train operator nationalised by government after 30 years of privatisation
FishFace@piefed.social 1 day agoNo, their ideology was that state-run enterprises are less efficient than equivalent private ones, and that allowing and encouraging ordinary citizens to invest in those newly-private businesses (I’m not sure if this was done for the sale of the railways, but it was for previous privatisations) would enrich those ordinary citizens.
This was the defining economic debate of the late 20th century. Many people in these parts dismiss it out of hand.
I’m very glad that British railways are coming back into public ownership, yet somehow am able to acknowledge that in some respects privatisation was a success. The idea that the only, or the best explanation for privatisation was grift is unsustainable.
grue@lemmy.world 1 day ago
“Somebody should make a profit off this because it’s more efficient” and “my cronies should make a profit off this because it helps me” are different, but the distinction is so minor in practice that lots of normal people rightfully don’t give a shit about it.
FishFace@piefed.social 1 day ago
They are wholly different in desired outcome and motivation.
In the former, the motivation is a better service by allowing profit. In the latter, profit, and its direction to cronies, is the motivation.
People just often feel uncomfortable imagining their political opponents having good intentions.
grue@lemmy.world 1 day ago
I was in a hurry when I wrote the previous comment, but I would also like to point out that when something is both (a) a natural monopoly and (b) has a lot of positive externalities, it is the least appropriate candidate for privatization possible. If somebody wants to do it even despite that, it’s entirely justified to question their motives!
FishFace@piefed.social 23 hours ago
Questioning motives is always reasonable, but concluding that their motives are evil is not justified here (i.e. the answer to the question cannot reasonably be a conclusive “it’s evil"), because the claim that you are then making is ridiculous.
Serious economists who stand to gain little-to-nothing from espousing right-wing economic policy have pushed for privatisation for decades - opposed, of course, by many serious economists who espouse left-wing economic policy.
The “evil motivations” conclusion either has to accuse all those economists of being evil (for what gain, we do not know) or it has to claim that a person’s motivations for putting forward right-wing economic views is entirely inexplicably ceases to be “honest but misguided” and becomes “dishonest and self-serving” in perfect correlation with what they stand to gain. That’s not reasonable: if it’s possible for someone to honestly hold an opinion, the mere presence of them having something to gain from that opinion doesn’t turn it dishonest.
This is before we get to actually assessing whether politicians actually stood to gain much from privatisation. John Major, for example, who oversaw rail privatisation, was born to a middle class family that later fell on hard times. He wasn’t born with a silver spoon in his mouth and attending parties with bankers. That brief analysis can’t tell you everything about his motivations, but it should make it more realistic that his sympathies lie more with ordinary people than with the ultra-rich, even though he oversaw policies which we know, or at least believe and can argue for, hurt ordinary people.