RE: Kitsap County

Ian,
   	Trying to do this on a small scale? Go for it. It might be do-able.
However, bad as you consider the performance of the large telcos, No one has
made the case to me that govt. could do it faster, better, cheaper, on the
same scale.
	Profit?  It's what makes the world work, like it or not.
	As for my water, I get mine from a publically held for-profit company,
Phila. Suburban Water Co..  The water tastes fine, is safe, the service has
been good my entire life and the rates are reasonable.  I get my gas and
electric from PECO, which is also for profit and they are competitive. If I
lived within the city limits of Phila I could still by my electrric from the
same company but I would have to buy my gas from Phila. Gas Works, which has
higher rates and is insolvent.

Jim


> -----Original Message-----
> From: [email protected]
> [mailto:[email protected]]On Behalf Of Ian Pierce
> Sent: Monday, December 13, 2004 1:29 AM
> To: [email protected]
> Subject: RE: Kitsap County
>
>
> > > On Sat, 11 Dec 2004 18:43:00 -0500, Jim Henry wrote:
> > > >Do you  really believe that a government entity, with no
> > > >capitalistic incentive, is  going to do a better job and provide
> > > >better performance than commercial *LECs  motivated by profit and
> > > >accountable to their stockholders?  It's a noble  thought but I
> > > >think this concept was proved out a failure in all of Eastern
> > > >Europe in the last 50 years or so in just about everything
> > > >enterprise the govt  undertook.  We see mostly the same
> > > >inefficiencies here when comparing a  govt. run enterprise to a
> > > >private commercial one. There are a few exceptions to
> every rule of
> > > >course, but they are only exceptions. Jim
>
> Okay, so I'm coming in a little late but I wanted to respond to this.
>
> Jim asked "Do you  really believe that a government entity...
> is going to do
> a better job and provide better performance than commercial *LECs...?"
>
> Do a better job *at what?*  The for-profit companies will surely do
> everything they can to deliver optimum results... to their
> shareholders.
> There is zero incentive for Comcast or Qwest to "care" about
> us.  We have no
> choice, no voice, and no alternative.  We're imprisoned in
> this market.
> Unless we move, they own us.  And if we do move, all we do is
> trade Qwest
> for SBC or Verizon, which isn't so tempting.
>
> Society has made the decision, and it's one I agree with, that basic
> services like electricity and water shall be provided to the
> general public
> at a reasonable cost.   As the pipe has fattened the
> "essentialness" of
> services the *LECs offer has become diluted, but the core
> argument -- that
> services shall be provided "for the greater good" still holds.
>
> Would you rather drink the tap water we've got now, coming
> from a local
> government agency with no incentive to cook the books and please Wall
> Street?  Or would it be better for consumers if we turned
> that operation
> over to a for-profit company?  Maybe one that doesn't even have any
> employees in our State, and thus won't be directly affected
> when they cut
> corners to boost their profits while endagering our health?
> Or to put it
> another way, how many Union Carbide execs died at Bhopal?
>
> This is not to say there is no place for profit... but I
> think if history
> has taught us anything, it's that we're greedy and lazy
> (central tenets of
> Capitalism).  Qwest has receipts on the order of a billion
> dollars a month.
> That's over a million dollars per hour.  When there's that much money
> flowing by, and the stakes so high with all the Wall Street
> brokers to be
> kept happy, the temptation to do wrong is just too great.
> The profit motive
> ultimately eclipses all other concerns; to paraphrase Vince
> Lombardi "profit
> isn't everything, it's the only thing."
>
> I do not see how society benefits when essential services
> such as water and
> electricity (and "data" and voice and health care and 911 and
> libraries and
> roads) are done to please stockholders rather than to please citizens.
>
> Free markets work.  Much of what's wrong with the telcos and
> cablecos (and
> healthcare, but I digress) is that the market is anything but free,
> consumers have no choice, and the 800 lb. gorillas stomp around their
> respective terrirories, doing everything they must to keep
> the game rigged
> in their favor.  Which is perfectly understanable, the
> shareholders wouldn't
> be too thrilled to learn there's another pig lined up at
> "their" trough.
>
> Just my two cents.
>
> Ian
>
>
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