Government Ownership Sucks

TheWall Street Journaltoday profiles South Africa ’s electric power company, Eskom. What a mess—something we have seen many times with government-owned businesses. Eskom has a bloated workforce, provides terrible service, fails to maintain its facilities, and is transmitting economic damage in every direction. It has rotten management and appar ently corrupt dealings with politicians.Three decades afterMargaret Thatcher this should not be happening. Governments should not own businesses that can earn revenues in the marketplace. For citizens, there is no advantage to government ownership —there is only high costs, debt bombs, cronyism, and lousy service. It wassame story with Puerto Rico ’s government power company. The way ahead for South Africa isprivatization.The word “sucks” is not a technical term, but it is surely what South Africans are thinking and it is the logical takeaway from theWSJ article:Africa ’s most-developed economy this week is experiencing its worst blackouts in years, with households, businesses and key infrastructure left without electricity for up to nine hours a day. The power cuts have hobbled the country’s mining sector, paralyzed traffic behind disabled stop lights and fo rced people to cook dinner outside on paraffin stoves—less than three months ahead of national elections that will determine whether President Cyril Ramaphosa, who ousted his scandal-battered predecessor last year, can win a full term.At the center of the short...
Source: Cato-at-liberty - Category: American Health Authors: Source Type: blogs