State ownership of companies

[*_ash_*]

If we re-nationalise all these companies we'll just end up in a similar mess to Greece.

A ridiculously over-sized state that can't control itself.

 

Why are people so eager to re-nationalise things, you don't trust the government to run the things they currently do.

 

... because ideologists can't think past the end of their noses?

 

-

 

I can't imagine how they would seize the companies without it costing an absolute fortune. Energy wise - could they not set up a state owned energy company and compete against the big 6? Just charge less than them if there aren't shareholders to pay. As long as they don't use government subsidies, it shouldn't break competition rules*

 

 

 

*that's a guess, no more

[fatrajah]

When the government ran the telecommunications service, the service usually produced a profit. Unfortunately that profit was "confiscated" by the government; any capital needed to invest in the improvement & modernisation of the service was dependent on the whim of the government of the day. That resulted in chronic under- investment in the service. Privatisation allowed the new company, BT, to borrow money like any other private company.

Edited August 9, 2015 by fatrajah

[*_ash_*]

When the government ran the telecommunications service, the service usually produced a profit. Unfortunately that profit was "confiscated" by the government; any capital needed to invest in the improvement & modernisation of the service was dependent on the whim of the government of the day. That resulted in chronic under- investment in the service. Privatisation allowed the new company, BT, to borrow money like any other private company.

 

Younger ideologists won't remember waiting 6 months to have a phone line installed. Had this not been sold off, it would have sucked every penny it could out of the tax-payer, with thousands of pencil pushers, and no investment, given how technology has moved on in recent decades.

[taxman]

East Coast mainline.....bailed out by the taxpayer, made a year on year profit, had good customer ratings but privatised because of ideology.

 

Result = massive price hikes.

 

 

And no competition!

 

---------- Post added 09-08-2015 at 21:44 ----------

 

If we re-nationalise all these companies we'll just end up in a similar mess to Greece.

A ridiculously over-sized state that can't control itself.

 

Why are people so eager to re-nationalise things, you don't trust the government to run the things they currently do.

 

 

Because when they ran East Coast Mainline it worked and made a profit, yet when sold off they immediately raised prices.

 

So government can runs things efficiently, can make a profit and I'd much rather that than the public get bent over and screwed every year with price rises whilst profits are given to shareholders rather than reinvested.

[JFKvsNixon]

East Coast mainline.....bailed out by the taxpayer, made a year on year profit, had good customer ratings but privatised because of ideology.

 

Result = massive price hikes.

 

 

And no competition!

 

---------- Post added 09-08-2015 at 21:44 ----------

 

 

 

Because when they ran East Coast Mainline it worked and made a profit, yet when sold off they immediately raised prices.

 

So government can runs things efficiently, can make a profit and I'd much rather that than the public get bent over and screwed every year with price rises whilst profits are given to shareholders rather than reinvested.

 

Isn't that more an argument on how the East Coast Mainline has been privatised as opposed to an argument about privatisation per se?

[drummonds]

... because ideologists can't think past the end of their noses?

 

-

 

I can't imagine how they would seize the companies without it costing an absolute fortune. Energy wise - could they not set up a state owned energy company and compete against the big 6? Just charge less than them if there aren't shareholders to pay. As long as they don't use government subsidies, it shouldn't break competition rules*

 

 

 

*that's a guess, no more

 

they probably want the railways to run as well as london underground which often goes for several weeks between major strikes.

[El Cid]

 

... because ideologists can't think past the end of their noses?

 

 

In England annual water bills had risen from £120 per year in 89, to £204 by 2006. If you take into account inflation, you’ve still got a rise of 39% over and above inflation.

 

The average combined water and sewerage bill in England and Wales has leapt 64% – from £236(2003) to £388(2013), a rise of 64%.

 

The numbers do not tally, how come we dont have these figures? It certainly looks like the water companies of old gave consumers cheaper bills.

 

http://www.theguardian.com/money/2013/feb/09/rising-water-bills-profits

 

https://www.opendemocracy.net/ourkingdom/rachel-graham/water-in-uk-public-versus-private

[Vague_Boy]

Ahem. British Leyland.

 

I'm old enough to remember what the nationalized telephone service used to be like (when it came under the auspices of the GPO [General Post Office]).

 

Your "choice" (if it can so be called) was between the standard phone and the Trimphone.

 

Available in a range of fetching colours such as drab green, olive green/grey, grey and beige.

 

Want to buy a phone from someone other than the GPO? No chance.

 

Phones that were fixed permanently to their socket. If you want a phone upstairs you had to pay for another phone. And wait a long time for the engineer to turn up. We're talking years to get a line [LINK].

 

The modern master socket that we know today was only introduced in 1986. Two years after British Telecom was privatized.

 

Perhaps you all also secretly long to drive a beige Austin Allegro as well?

[unbeliever]

I meant the one that was given back to the state, after the default on East Coast rail franchise that gave the francise back, and then the state was running it, making money for George Osborne.

 

Its not just state companies that mess up, private one go bust too, and the treasury bail them out.

 

In a free market system, when a private company goes bust you let them.

That's how you force them to be efficient.

Anything can appear to perform well if you throw tax-payers money at it But it's still all our money however it makes it way there.

 

---------- Post added 10-08-2015 at 06:09 ----------

 

In England annual water bills had risen from £120 per year in 89, to £204 by 2006. If you take into account inflation, you’ve still got a rise of 39% over and above inflation.

 

The average combined water and sewerage bill in England and Wales has leapt 64% – from £236(2003) to £388(2013), a rise of 64%.

 

The numbers do not tally, how come we dont have these figures? It certainly looks like the water companies of old gave consumers cheaper bills.

 

http://www.theguardian.com/money/2013/feb/09/rising-water-bills-profits

 

https://www.opendemocracy.net/ourkingdom/rachel-graham/water-in-uk-public-versus-private

 

Subsidy. We were still paying. But now we pay through the bills rather than the taxes.

[cuttsie]

You do know, don't you that the track is already nationalised and that the track is the whole problem with the current system.

On the train I use the carriages are a disgrace the backs of the seats at head level are coated in grease and hair detritus .

You could plant potatoes under the seats with the amount of muck and rubbish left to rot week after week .