Capitalism is great for producing and marketing new goods and services and I absolutely reject the notion that there should be no private producers of goods or services.
However, capitalism has its limitations. We should not accept the Republican mantra of “privatize everything”. We should not accept converting non-profit providers of goods and services into for profit businesses, unless there is strong evidence that this works well for all stakeholders. We should not accept conversion of governmental facilities into privately owned facilities, like prisons, airports, roads, unless there is stringent continual transparent monitoring to ensure that no one gets hurt by the conversion and that costs are no increased.
The problem with “for profit” operation of government functions is that there is a strong tendency to excessively reduce staff, reduce maintenance, in the interests of profit.
Our health care system is a very good example of where free enterprise is not the best solution. It’s very very clear that payment for medical services is best done through a well run government system such as those in the UK, Canada and many European countries, rather than through health insurance businesses. Products however — hardware such as beds and imaging, consumables such as medications and bandages — are probably best sources through free markets, provided the markets are free and not corrupted, as markets all too often are.
Public utilities such as energy and water are cases for close examination. I strongly suspect that private suppliers of water and electricity do so at higher cost with less reliability than well run public sector systems.
The school system is something requiring careful thought. Fairness demands equal pay and benefits for staff, whether public or private, and pay commensurate with the education and training of staff, so that they receive private sector equivalence. There have been infamous stories of for profit schools staffed by underpaid teachers with terrible pension and health benefits.
In conclusion, a tiny example of improper privatization.
A friend living on a busy highway needed a huge tree cut down in their front yard. Town regulations required the stationing of an off duty police officer along with a patrol car in front of my friend’s property while the tree service trucks were parked on the highway reducing traffic flow. It used to be the case that scheduling the police officer and patrol car was done through calling the town police department and arranging a time and paying a deposit. The fee for the police person was $50 per hour for a minimum of 4 hours, and the fee for the patrol car was $25 per hour. The scheduling was then privatized, so you would call a private company, and pay them, and they would schedule the police officer and car, and the price more than doubled. The scheduling could have been done for almost nothing, using online computing. This is an example of how public facilities can be privatized for the benefit of a small business, raising costs for the average citizen.
