Congress imposes a rigid monopoly on the nation so that we can continue to receive mainly “junk mail” in our mailboxes six days a week — while 205 billion emails blast around the planet every day. Retaining special protections for the government’s old-fashioned paper delivery system makes little sense.
He suggests privatizing the post office, as well as Amtrak, the TVA, government buildings, and many other government “businesses.” He does not even mention communications spectrum, much of which is restricted to government use and is wasted.
I found the paper depressing to read, because the case he makes is so compelling and the likelihood that privatization will take place appears to be so close to nil.
About once every 5-7 years some Republican will try to privatize the TVA, and it will go nowhere because D’s are emotionally incapable of parting with anything that’s part of The New Deal, and the payoff isn’t worth the trouble to spend that much political energy on. The TVA would preposterously easy to privatize, since it operates as an independent entity, and the feds could easily just IPO it like they did with GM, and then just spend 5-10 years slowly selling shares on the open market.
Obviously, you can’t privatize these functions because the private owners wouldn’t do the right thing.
Amen to the radio spectrum comment! The FCC, if it ever had some benefit*, became obsolete as soon as spread-spectrum algorithms became practical. They’re reduced to patronizingly regulating what the private owners of fiberoptics can do with their property.
* There may have been a case for coordinating broadcasters’ frequencies, but for an interesting case study in opposition to that, consider the international shortwave broadcasting coordination (http://www.hfcc.org/coord.phtml) that is done voluntarily by both private and public entities. My dad worked for a religious broadcaster and would attend those meetings.
I would not drag radio into this. The privatization of radio seems to have failed spectacularly The hulk of ClearChannel blocks the harbor to this day. Prior to that, one could make a modest living in it. If we are to defend capitalism, we must embrace its failures.
A radio station I am fond of, KHYI in the general Dallas MetroMess, is privately owned, and actually advertises that they are not saddled with crushing debt. It stand as a reminder of just how weak and thready the other stations are. Oddly enough, I don’t consider Pandora a viable replacement. There is something of the civic in a radio station that an Internet node lacks.
A postal service seems an obvious choice for a public good. I know two carriers personally, and they’re slowly getting pushed to the margins.
Every day I pick up the mail and place it in the recycle bin, unless you plan on putting all those recycling people out of work, privatizing the post office can not be done.
Congress imposes a rigid monopoly on the nation so that we can continue to receive mainly “junk mail” in our mailboxes six days a week — while 205 billion emails blast around the planet every day.
How is the government forcing paper junk mail on us? Companies are not forced send out paper junk?
I thought the major problem with the paper was it worked 30 years ago and then it should work today! Ok let us sell government land and buildings. (And not give away like Nevada ranchers want!)
Additionally, the next problem is how do you protect against local monopolies who can much worse than government.