Privatisation - bad thing?

[Dolby]

While dodging potholes that have caused me damage previously and during my almost 1 hour in 4km due to another traffic light out - I started thinking : why don't we privatise certain companies and lower taxes? Is there any negative to privatisation?

Imagine a fixed line phone operator that didn't have excuses like 'no ports available' , 'stolen cables', 'exchange needs upgrading' or the 'the copper infrastructure in your area is old' Imagine one could phone and get broadband installed in a under a week as opposed to months. Imagine one could actually contact them about queries.

How about traffic lights that were maintained and didn't go out with rain, constantly. Traffic lights overseas operate in +40 agrees and -40 degrees - as well as 9 months constant rain. Surely something can be done?

A pothole has caused me R6,000 damage in the past - and driving to work, I'm CONSTANTLY avoiding them ... some large enough to swallow small cars.

Healthcare - we're already paying R4,000.00pm+ for private healthcare ... why do we need to contribute to public healthcare anyhow?

Would there be a negative if each of these was private - or at least had private aspects (call centres etc)

 

[rrh]

Imagine a fixed line phone operator that didn't have excuses like 'no ports available' , 'stolen cables', 'exchange needs upgrading' or the 'the copper infrastructure in your area is old' Imagine one could phone and get broadband installed in a under a week as opposed to months. Imagine one could actually contact them about queries.

A friend has been waiting for over a month for BT (in the UK) to move his DSL connection to his new home.

And large areas in both the UK & USA don't have DSL because "it isn't profitable"

Maybe Korea ?

 

[undesign]

Imagine who will get these contracts...in the end we'll probably pay more for even less.

 

[Devill]

There is a lot to say for and against privatisation in South Africa.

I think that the good will slightly outweigh the bad as at the moment the gouverment run operations are very, very poorly policed and shows terrible service.

But like stated above, sometimes doing things for simple profit will not always be the best for the general populace.

 

[phoneJunky]

Okay, say we privatize our roads, that would only mean the the fuel levi will be thrown out and how much tax money we contribute to road maintenance. I think we will pay much more then because, investors need to get paid etc. Remember most of the tax money comes directly from companies, so in the end it will work out cheaper for them, and more for us.

Don't know the numbers, just my feeling on it.

 

[Sherbang]

Services would be more expensive since the whole idea of a company is to make as big a profit as they can. Profit before people.
Areas which are wealthy would have lots of services while poorer areas would have none, thus entrenching the disparity between rich and poor for future generations.

 

[Arthur]

It depends.

Simply privatising publicly-owned assets without also deregulating will simply transfer public assets to private hands and accomplish nothing but the enrichment of the new owners. It is essential that privatisation also be accompanies by dereguation, so that any other person is free to offer goods and services in the same domain. Otherwise it's a waste of time.

Changing assets fromn state-owned to private owned whilst retaining all the regulation and proscription of competition simply changes the socialism to fascism.

 

[murraybiscuit]

There is a lot to say for and against privatisation in South Africa.

I think that the good will slightly outweigh the bad as at the moment the gouverment run operations are very, very poorly policed and shows terrible service.

But like stated above, sometimes doing things for simple profit will not always be the best for the general populace.

in the ideal world, everybody contributes and benefits equally. the problem however, is that we aren't there yet.

 

[Dolby]

If I take Telkom as an example ...

As you guys said, if it suddenly goes private the new owners would want profit from it. But there is competition ... so they can't simply charge what they want? They'd need to balance otherwise the whole venture would simply fail?

 

[Devill]

in the ideal world, everybody contributes and benefits equally. the problem however, is that we aren't there yet.

I agree 100%, that is why I say there is good points for and against privatisation.

 

[borga]

Healthcare - we're already paying R4,000.00pm+ for private healthcare ... why do we need to contribute to public healthcare anyhow?

Most who can afford private healthcare are on it, so if all those who can afford it don't contribute to public healthcare, public healthcare will be even more non-existant since who will pay for it. And it is the only healthcare for around 80% of the population.

So stopping contributions from those with private healthcare to public healthcare is a big no-no for any party that wants votes from the masses, it is for that reason why we are moving into the opposite directions so that people on private healthcare will pay more towards public healthcare with the coming National Health Insurance to improve service for those who can't afford private healthcare.