I think you misunderstood. I mean the public owns the natural resources/infrastructure, and then bids out the management to any number of contractors. This is NOT like cable companies, where the cable companies own the wires and are granted a monopoly. This is the crux of the lobbying and lawsuits around municipal broadband - these communities want to own the infrastructure and just contract out the maintenance, but the telecom folks want to own the infrastructure.
This is not *exclusive mining rights* contracts - this is things like "we let you mine/lumber/etc. this area on behalf of the owners, the public". Important distinction. As far as I know, only roads are really done this way, maybe some localized instances otherwise, but it's not common. I mean even power companies own their lines, they aren't "state owned." And I'd argue power is just as critical as roads.
Oh that explains the temp service posting for road construction workers and bad patch jobs in the village then. I guess if you think that's better than careers and benefits. EDIT: Status of local roads: Main roads are pretty good repairs if they are used by the local superbusiness (relative to other local business) which handles huge traffic occasionally, expressways are well done but seems slow progress or something, one spot has been under work for a long time seems like the same every time I drive past. Local roads are awful everywhere I go except state college towns, the capital and The Big City, but maybe because I don't drive around those as often. Mid sized town nearby is awful except for major roads. Score of awful includes drivable at speed limit but zooming around holes in road where necessary to "I hope that's not as deep as it looks"
So just out of curiosity, what's the alternative? How would a truly "public" industry actually be any more accountable than private industries now that are supposedly overseen by public commissions?
I don't see trading one corporate overlord for another to be anything other than a lateral shift... or am I missing something?
This is starting to veer a bit off from economics to politics... maybe there are some economic theories here that apply?
Here is a magic paperwork everyone should know about:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Freedom_of_Information_Act_(United_States)
The sort of thing a person should be told to practice one time in high school, to obtain some document. Along with writing a practice motion to the court and how to access legal research terminals at universities, which ought to be expanded to local libraries as well so people don't have to drive 2 hours to look up caselaw or pay for lawyer priced software. Take that, profession of lawyers! I say that jokingly, they might think it's a cool idea. Please teach it in the public schools too.
I also wanted to say something skeptical about needing election campaign finance reform that can somehow be effective at reducing impact of donations while making it past existing precedent before public manufacturing industries would sound better to me on a big scale and even then I'd want them to more be price controllers through competition rather than driving everyone out of business, and I'd also want to read more books on it to say whether it was a good plan or not. What would you think about "emergency" industries that only power up with authority when there is a shortage, McTraveller? For example, when those corporates <points at people not in jail> recently almost starved those babies <points at babies> I say half jokingly. When that was on TV news I would do the South Park "They took err jerbs" meme about it, quite tastelessly replacing it with "strved err babies". I now quite sincerely regret doing this on several occasions, though perhaps it would indeed make for a fine episodic social critique.
I mostly meant shuttered industries but that seems like a difficult and expensive thing to have waiting. Maybe buyups of closed plants for mothballing? I dunno, I haven't thought it through or done the work to be qualified to say.
Perhaps in price emergencies also? I would guess rigs can be shuttered for a while due to all the inactive ones around here. That might actually be a better example.
https://www.nytimes.com/2022/06/21/world/europe/ukraine-russian-oil-embargo.htmlOnce the refiners turn oil into diesel or gasoline, no one can distinguish whether the fuels they ship to Europe and elsewhere come from Russian crude. That means Western motorists who think they are paying more for non-Russian fuel may be mistaken.
“Those molecules, a lot of them are Russian,” Jeff Brown, the president of F.G.E., an energy consulting firm, said of the refined oil products exported to the West.
I think though mostly saying it should be all A or B isn't quite right though, when it could be a mixture of the two and perhaps work better than either.
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Topic: Armchair Economics Thread - Re-Resurrection (Read 33981 times)