You never did answer my question. How many fire departments have been started by insurance companies?
How many secondary roads have been build by private industry? You keep claiming that they would be doing it if there was a profit to be made. Well, maybe there isn't...hmmm?
And you know this to be true, exactly how?This country is covered from sea to sea with redundant, wasteful, firefighting companies. The amount of fire equipment in Cleveland, Ohio is absolutely insane. Because government is filling this role to such an excess, there is no need and hence very little private fire fighting private industry.
Maybe not but you did say: "Private fire fighting companies exist today...and more would exist if governments didn't employ fire fighters to fill that role.88 wrote:Does anyone notice that when a socialist is getting his ass handed to him, he mischaracterizes the other person's position and then attacks it. Never did I say that ALL fire departments or ALL secondary roads should be built by private industry.
And which private roads would be profitable? You seem to think that this would be a great idea. Why don't you outline just how private secondary roads would be profitable? The private roads that exist today are mostly limited access expressways where they can charge a toll every time a driver uses the road. And most of these are struggling to make a profit. How would this work on secondary roads? Do you think the public would stand having to pay a private company every time they used their cars?Only those that are profitable.
You certainly did imply as such. "The government should only do those limited number of tasks enumerated in the Constitution." Most basic civic functions are not enumerated in the Constitution. In fact what you're implying is that state and local government shouldn't exist at all.And I didn't say that States and Local governments could not perform basic civic functions like police protection and other typical municipal services.
Based on exactly what knowledge or experience? The bolded statement is such an incredibly false assumption that I can't believe even you made it. Citizens do not necessarily benefit from privatization. The only entity that always benefits is the private company. Yeah, right. Let private industry skim the cream off the top and leave the really difficult stuff to the local governments.My point is simply that it would be better for everyone in this country if government privatized as many of the municipal services as possible (i.e., where there would be a sufficient profit motive and competition to allow the citizens to benefit from privatization).
These examples are barely relevant. Private utility companies are highly regulated. Remember what happened when "deregulation" was attempted? Private fire companies supplement the local government companies, they do not take their place and they are often considered to be a nuisance. You say that you don't think that not ALL fire companies should be privatized. Then which ones should be and which ones not?There are many private ambulance services in bigger cities. That does not have to be taken care of by public EMS services. There are private utility companies. There are private fire companies. We can outsource prisons, waste disposal, highway maintenance, etc. etc. etc.
And where did you find that in the Constitution? If there is a service that needs to be supplied, how long are local governments supposed to wait for private industry to decide whether it could be profitable or not? How do you think roads actually get built? Roads need to be built before development takes place. Do you really think a private company is going to go out and build roads before there is significant development in the area? Who is going to decide where these roads go? Do you think they should take over roads that are already built and paid for by the public? And again, just how to you propose they be paid for use of such roads?My position is that the federal government should be restricted to doing only that which the Constitution expressly authorizes. The State and local governments should be permitted to exercise all governmental power that is not expressly conferred to the Federal Government, and then should only exercise that power to the extent that the private sector cannot perform the services at a profit more effeciently than state and local government can.
