The Privatization of Public Services
Perhaps an addition to a previous post, The Application, Not the Idea, this post is a reflection on the shortcomings of privatization. There can be no doubt that for some systems in our society, privatization can be good and productive. Yet others are clearly best served by remaining in public hands. Systems that are unnecessarily privatized can lead to disasters and backlogs like we have all witnessed in Texas over the past week. Both our country and the world have been well served with privatization. While it is debatable whether advancements would have ever come, had R&D remained in public hands, the current history is clear. Privatization has allowed for enormous advancements in public health, technology, industrialization, and market efficiencies. The very act of privatization incentivizes technological advancements, decreases in pricing to benefit the consumer, or a mix of the two. This results in more widespread prosperity, growth, jobs...