Re: Repiking the pike and magical thinking

[David Farber <dave () farber net>]

Begin forwarded message:

From: Tom Van Vleck <thvv-post () multicians org>
Date: December 4, 2008 8:14:40 PM EST
To: dave () farber net
Subject: Re: [IP] Repiking the pike and magical thinking

Bob Frankston wrote:

> People tell me that we have to have private companies operating our  
> infrastructure because government can't do anything right. But  
> that's clearly magical thinking -- why do we assume that companies  
> are founts of wisdom? There is a difference in that governments  
> don't have effective competition. But quasi-private companies like  
> carriers don't have much competition either -- they are defined by  
> regulations. At least you can move to a different city but you find  
> the same carriers! And too-big-too-fail companies have similar  
> dysfunctions.

My sister forwarded me a comment from Michael Moore on the auto bailout.
He points out that they want $34 billion (old news, news tonight said
maybe it's 2 or 3 times that) to keep doing what they're doing.
Moore says that the total value of GM stock is $3 billion and that
the government should just buy the auto companies.

So wait.  Government is bad, can't do anything right.  We don't
trust the auto executives.  Who has the wisdom to solve the problem?

Same thing with the turnpikes... maximizing shareholder value
wars with maximizing re-election potential and both public
and private ownership produce consequences we don't want.





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