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One of the major buzzwords lately is
privatization.
Although privatization
looks a
lot like privation,
another word that shows up often
in discussions about the goals and results of the Reagan
administration, the two words aren't related.
Privatization
means to take some function that
was formerly performed by government and turn the job over
to a private enterprise. For example, it used to be that
only the government bothered to enforce drug laws. Now
private employers do much of the snooping, searching and
seizing, at a great increase in efficiency and a
corresponding decrease in public expenditures.
Hampered by quaint and archaic considerations of due
process,
influenced by lobbyists and sometimes even
voters, embarrassed by jolts of unfavorable publicity,
governments obviously can't perform as efficiently as
private enterprise.
So privatization might make sense. However, when the topic comes up, it always concerns the wrong things.
There is talk of privatizing the U.S. Postal Service. Much of that talk comes from the same people who, just a couple years ago, were complaining about the break-up of another communications monopoly, AT&T. They said service diminished while confusion increased. And they don't think that would happen to our postal system if it were privatized?
Other favorite targets of the privatizers include trash collection, fire protection, the RTD and the 726,686,000 acres of public land in the United States.
But have you noticed that you never hear anyone arguing for privatization of those things that really should be privatized?
For instance, there is the cabal of public entities now scheming to build Two Forks Reservoir.
Consider how difficult their work would become if they managed a private corporation which had to justify this tremendous capital investment, with its blue-sky demand projections, to nervous stockholders and skeptical investors.
Consider also how the rest of us might prosper if Colorado water were indeed made private. We always hear how valuable water is, and how Colorado law allows you to own water. But a water right is a curious form of property. Colorado collects taxes most other forms of real and personal property that are used in commerce -- but water rights are not taxed.
Let's make water rights truly private and tax them, the same as we tax real estate or machinery. And if somebody indeed believes that the metro area will be demanding umpteen trillion gallons in 2025, let him risk his own money and reap his own rewards. As it is, you get to risk your money (who do you think guarantees those bonds?) without sharing in the rewards.
Another worthy candidate for privatization is sports arenas. Why should Denver taxpayers finance Mile High Stadium and McNichols Arena for the benefit of private firms like the Broncos and Nuggets, not to mention the concessionaires?
According to the privatizers, it is in the public interest to turn certain bus routes over to private companies. But apparently it is also in the public interest for the tax-paying public to provide places for young millionaires to cavort.
Another public activity that really cries out for privatization is economic development. Just about every day, you read of a new disgrace resulting from public -- i.e., governmental -- involvement in economic development.
Most recently it was a toy company in Park County that lured a pile of government money on the premise that it would provide jobs in an area that sorely needed jobs. Naturally, the toy company hasn't provided any jobs. There was a computer software company in Pueblo which did pretty much the same thing -- make promises, attract public money, and vanish.
Further, every struggling town and county has an economic development group that wastes tax money while complaining that Colorado could attract more industry if taxes were lower.
So far, economic development has provided a catalog of the reasons that governments don't do some things well -- waste, lies, abuse, inefficiency, unkept promises. If any activities deserve to be privatized, then economic development ranks right up there with water systems and sports arenas.
But where are the privatizers when we need them? Picking on the beleaguered RTD and Postal Service, noton what really should be privatized. The privatizers must believe that consistency and courage are not public concerns, but something they have to keep private.
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