For years, the government-supremacist movement has imposed ever-greater regulations and controls on car and truck drivers. Waiting periods, background checks, written tests, vision tests, physical examinations, data checks, and all manner of other intrusive inquiries and requirements are part of government driver licensing. Now just as the intrusive state nears a total control of driving …
Category: benefits of privatization
May 15
The best railroad infrastructure is built by private hands in the private sector.
Pictured above: the great entrepreneur James J. Hill PRIVATE-SECTOR RAILROAD INFRASTRUCTURE IS GENERALLY SUPERIOR TO GOVERNMENT RAILROAD INFRASTRUCTURE Days ago, a government Amtrak train derailed in Philadelphia, killing at least 8. Almost immediately, central planners and socialists began blaming (nonexistent) “infrastructure cuts” by fiscally conservative members of Congress. (That was before the evidence tended to …
Mar 21
Decades of Extravagant Spending on Public Education Have Produced Few Good Results
Cato Institute’s Daniel Mitchell describes U.S. spending on public schools in this way: “Never Have so Many Paid so Much to Achieve so Little.” Incredibly, Americans are made to pay more for schooling than the parents of any other society. Yet American students–ranked head to head with students in other countries–perform very poorly. The graph …
Mar 20
A Private-Sector website that directed consumers to different health-insurance options already existed before the Obamacare website flop
Most of us remember two years ago when the government’s Obamacare website was launched. Americans watched in horror as the website crashed, failed to function and was hacked. At a cost to taxpayers of many tens if not hundreds of millions of dollars. It was a lesson in how government enterprises perform. Of course, ANY …
Mar 18
Another town eliminates police force, finds that crime drops
The town of New Carlisle, Ohio–just outside Dayton–has eliminated its police force and cut its funding for county sheriffs deputies substantially. Just as with other towns who have done the same, crime has dropped.
Mar 14
A Broken Model of Service Delivery: Gigantic Increases in Government Education Spending Have Had No Positive Impact on Student Performance
Government education is a monstrous failure by any measurement. This graph shows that while government spending in education has increased faster than inflation for decades, ALL MEASUREMENTS OF EDUCATION OUTCOMES–whether SAT scores, standardized-test outcomes, or basic reading or math performances–HAVE SHOWN NO IMPROVEMENT. The graph is from the Cato Institute.
Mar 13
“Unfair Pricing” is Sometimes Quite Fair
From the book, “Roads in a Market Economy” by Gabriel Roth (1996, page 63): A more modern example of efficient but’unfair’ pricing . . . was related by P.F. Amos at a conference in 1979: Having taken a bus to the Nepal-India border from Kathmandu, and being first through customs, Mr. R.G. Bullock . . …
Mar 09
Private-sector innovators create ever-cheaper medical products while government regulation keeps driving healthcare costs higher
If the power of capitalism and free markets were unleashed on health care, we would immediately see costs go down. The poorest people in society could afford high-quality health care products and services. Witness this story about fifty-cent microscopes. Private sector innovators have developed microscopes that can be sold for less than the price of …
Mar 02
Washington Post Offers Dire Warnings About Private Policing; Even While Private Policing is Shown To Be Cheaper and Safer than Government Policing
The Washington Post, the voice of the Washington government establishment if there ever was one, has launched a scary news story about the purported growth of private (meaning, in this sense, contract, or privately-owned police companies licensed under a special Virginia statute) policing. The Washington Post story warns of private officers who may be undertrained. …
