The tide is turning against the scam that is privatisation

[3rdRock]

Privatisation isn't working. We were promised a shareholding democracy, competition, falling costs and better services. A generation on, most people's experience has been the opposite. From energy to water, rail to public services, the reality has been private monopolies, perverse subsidies, exorbitant prices, woeful under-investment, profiteering and corporate capture.

Private cartels run rings round the regulators. Consumers and politicians are bamboozled by commercial secrecy and contractual complexity. Workforces have their pay and conditions slashed. Control of essential services has not only passed to corporate giants based overseas, but those companies are themselves often state-owned – they're just owned by another state.

Report after report has shown privatised services to be more expensive and inefficient than their publicly owned counterparts. It's scarcely surprising that a large majority of the public, who have never supported a single privatisation, neither trust the privateers nor want them running their services.

But regardless of the evidence, the caravan goes on. David Cameron's government is now driving privatisation into the heart of education and health, outsourcing the probation service and selling off a chunk of Royal Mail at more than £1bn below its market price, with the government's own City advisers cashing in their chips in short order.

http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfre ... vatisation

Comment:

Privatisation was the other side of the Thatcher coin.

On the one side, her aim was to destabilise society. To make the workers "mobile". With no regard to their rights, to their communities or to the inevitable rise of commuting (and it's problems) and the lack of 'belonging' that such foolish policies would bring. Blair et al pursued the same wreckless policies. More or less.

The other side was privatisation. A sop to those same workers - "Here, make yourselves a few quid" - which was really aimed at the already rich. Via privatisation the richest filled their pockets at the expense of the rest of us. And they have gone on filling their pockets.

So yes. It is time it was stopped.

1. The rich have got enough.
2. The rest of us need a break! Electric, water, gas, the post office, rail and other essential services must be returned to the public.

Excellent summary.

[biffvernon]

This morning the BBC announced that it was dropping the 50% rule for in-house programme making. That's another form of privatisation that is continuing apace.

[Little John]

Public services can no longer be afforded without massive cuts to those services. This requires that a significant public debate about what services are worth saving and what has to be jettisoned takes place. In turn, precipitating a further debate about who contributes what to the pot that pays for those services. Such a debate would inevitably deleteriously affect the interests of the richest and most powerful in our societies. Unsurprisingly, we are not getting that debate.

Instead, what we are getting is a steady run down of public services, a media onslaught on those same public services and a steady privatisation of them as a "solution" to the "problem". The reason is simple; by privatising such services, when they inevitably turn to shit after the shareholders have taken their cut, the state can absolve itself of all responsibility.

[madibe]

It's a f***ing outrage.

I've been banging on about this to folks for an age, but it went unheeded. Of course, now the chickens are home to roost, everyone is pissed with the privatisation's... and profiteering.

Apart from the young generation of course, who know nothing different.

Basically, most are sheep. Totally into their social media and 'devices'... meanwhile they are happy to be ignorant.

It's a bit like the Matrix really.

Grief.

[SleeperService]

The tide is turning all right. But only to avoid obvious questions like;

What else can we sell?

Where are we going to get the money to balance the deficit?

How do we get the population to accept no services while maintaining tax income and 'growth'?

How much of a renumeration increase can we get this year?

We need automatic weapons in every workplace....NOW!!!

[madibe]

But do people really care... and even if they do care, do they understand. I personally doubt it.

The majority 40 - 50 somethings (i.e. me) fall into two camps:

I understand but I don't care

I care but don't really understand

Older people understand but mostly don't give a feck.

Younger people don't understand (generalisation) and wonder what all the fuss is about, so don't really care either. Although social media tells them to be 'caring' of the environment/planet/others - as long as it doesn't compromise their consumerist religion.

Go figure

[mr brightside]

But do people really care... and even if they do care, do they understand. I personally doubt it.

The majority 40 - 50 somethings (i.e. me) fall into two camps:

I understand but I don't care

I care but don't really understand

Older people understand but mostly don't give a feck.

Younger people don't understand (generalisation) and wonder what all the fuss is about, so don't really care either. Although social media tells them to be 'caring' of the environment/planet/others - as long as it doesn't compromise their consumerist religion.

Go figure

Don't know which camp i fall into, i don't fully understand the depth of the problem but see the tips of icebergs floating around all over the place. One thing i know for sure is how angry i get when some random spokesperson from some company in public services comes on TV to varnish over all the grave concerns, and feed in some gentle patter about how it wasn't their fault or whatever. One of the worst ones is care for the elderly especially those with dementia, it must be a potential goldmine when the 'clientsector' isn't always able to raise the alarm.

On consumerism- i watched 'The men that made us spend' the other night, again i've been noticing the tip floating along for years but it was a delight to see the size of the whole thing.

[emordnilap]

This requires that a significant public debate about what services are worth saving and what has to be jettisoned takes place.

Meanwhile, TTIP.

[vtsnowedin]

Meanwhile, TTIP.

Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership

[RenewableCandy]

Yes, and in your case TTP as well. They will, if they come in, mandate that everything that still remains, will have to be "put out to tender" and the lowest bid that just scrapes by the minimum standards will have to be the one that's accepted.

My personal objection to this is that it means that everyone who performs their work (for example, care of people with dementia, cleaning stuff, repairing roads, running train services) will have to do so with an ethos of business rather than one of service.

One who works with an ethos of service wants to see a job well done and happy punters, and sees this as an end in itself. In contrast, one who works with an ethos of business may very well want the same, but only as a means to an end, that end being the one of making money. They will view their happy punters, not as people, but as a resource to be used in the quest for more business. They will spend a disproportionate amount of time and mental effort on self-promotion, rather than actually doing the job they were hired to do.

I was a reluctant eyewitness to this process in my previous job: we spent only about 1/4 of our time and effort solving engineering problems, the rest was on sales promotion of various types, including as part of the engineering work. To give a simple example, we developed a useful little spreadsheet for calculating how much energy various types of installation would create or save for particular (sets of) buildings. Rather than publish this as a resource (which would have made us no money but lots of happy punters) we guarded it in secret and used it to get the numbers which were subsequently embedded in 50-page reports, about 40 pages of which were, basically, sales promotion (reassuring text and pretty pictures of flowers, wind turbines, etc). The reports, having been sent to the punters, were then used to impress more prospective punters.

Though this is in fact standard industry practice (and I therefore am not slagging-off the firm I worked with!), it struck me as an inordinately inefficient way of getting people to save energy.

[emordnilap]

RC, you put things too politely. This 'partnership' - it's nothing of the sort for the likes of you and I, it's corporate imperialism, it's economic colonialism, it's a plutocrat's wet dream, it's capitalism for the poor but socialism for the rich - needs opposing tooth and nail, with all that that phrase implies.

Remember folks, the list of what can be sold out is a negative one - i.e., on the list are only items not 'on the table'. Which means a very short list and feck the rest of ya.

[madibe]

On consumerism- i watched 'The men that made us spend' the other night, again i've been noticing the tip floating along for years but it was a delight to see the size of the whole thing.

I don't know about a 'delight' - but yes, it touched on some of it.

When I worked as an engineer in a previous life I had a very interesting conversation with an ex- Rolls Royce engineer.
He explained to me a couple of interesting things:

1/ Rolls Royce engines (combustion) last a very very long time. This is because the top and bottom end bearings are actually made as perfectly round as possible with very close tolerances (along with other frictional parts). This makes major engine failure virtually unheard of with these pieces of precision engineering.

However, I was informed that most *ord bearings are constructed slightly out of line(and hence do not tighten up perfectly circular). This leads to failure circa 90,000 miles.

2/ Car batteries fail. This is designed in, but there is no need for them to fail. Batteries became sealed 'for life' to stop you emptying out the zinc oxide / detritus at the bottom of the battery (flushing). This grot accumulates as the battery is in use and eventually shorts out the + and - plates. Also being sealed you can not refresh the electrolyte. Result - failure in a known timespan.
Longer life batteries simply have a bigger sump where the grot can go before shorting out the plates.

Aint it great? LOL

[madibe]

Sorry to make two consecutive posts.... but whilst on the subject of corporate greed etc... it doesn't stop there:

I watched (most) of a program last night that looked into 're-cycled' clothing in Ghana.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b0 ... ur-clothes

Clothes donated to charity shops, mainly from the UK and the states find their way to Ghana (very little is actually sold in charity shops, apparently).

The clothes are bundled into huge bails and shipped to Ghana, by lorry and then container by ship.

They are bought by Ghana's importers.

He then sells these bails onto market traders. In an interview with one of these importers he said he makes £25,000 per day. (see 06:48 )

The market traders then sort these into grade 1, 2 and 3 ... and yup, sell them onto stall holders who sell them to the public.

£££££££££££

Meanwhile the local fabric industry and clothes manufacturers have all gone bust apart from one company that makes funeral robes/outfits!

So my point?

Even in an area of 'charity' the scheme molests the people, while those at the top of the chain clean up.

Can you imagine living in Ghana and earning 25k a day?

[Little John]

It just seems like, as the capacity to create real wealth wealth dries up, everyone just ends up on the make. The system is eating itself.

[vtsnowedin]

[

When I worked as an engineer in a previous life I had a very interesting conversation with an ex- Rolls Royce engineer.
He explained to me a couple of interesting things:

1/ Rolls Royce engines (combustion) last a very very long time. This is because the top and bottom end bearings are actually made as perfectly round as possible with very close tolerances (along with other frictional parts). This makes major engine failure virtually unheard of with these pieces of precision engineering.

However, I was informed that most *ord bearings are constructed slightly out of line(and hence do not tighten up perfectly circular). This leads to failure circa 90,000 miles.

While that might of been true in the days of the model A ,I have to seriously doubt that there is a measurable difference in the roundness or precision of manufacturing or finish of the engine bearings between any of the major manufactures today. You'll have to show me the data on that one. At any rate none of them will last without oil on the surfaces of the bearings while running. Many of the American and Japanese engines will run well past 200,000 miles if the oil is changed regularly and operated prudently with proper coolant levels maintained.
http://www.mahle-aftermarket.com/C12579 ... f#page=304
Look at page 304 for the rod bearing vertical clearances for the v8s on the bottom of the page. 0.0003 inches new and .0029 inches worn out. that's pretty *## round.