[OT] Verizon/FairPoint sale (was: Comcast!?!?)

[Jerry Feldman]

On Fri, 16 Nov 2007 16:46:53 -0500
Bill McGonigle <bill at bfccomputing.com> wrote:

> Government (as local as possible) would contract out maintenance of  
> the roads to the most competitive business.  Market forces would  
> drive down the cost and improve the quality.  Ideally, in the case of  
> State roads, the states would blockgrant the funds to the towns the  
> roads' ran through so oversight of maintenance would be local.

This would not work. First, most of the highway contracts are bid out.
Secondly, by localizing highways, you will get some really great roads
connected to some really awful roads. Look at the way some local
governments handle sewer and water.  The problem is how a government
contracts out the maintenance. It all comes down to competitive bids.
The lowest qualified bidder wins. But, that bidder may simply do the
minimum. Look at the Big Dig. Modern Continental was the lowest bidder
and cut many corners. Certainly there was a lack of proper supervision,
which was also contracted out. How many times have you driven down a
local or state road and found the quality to be very different when you
crossed a town or country boundary.  Unfortunately, privatization does
not always work, but in some cases it works well. Trash collection is
another one to look at. In some communities, trash is collected by the
city, in others it is contracted out to companies like BFI or Waste
Management, in others it is privatized where the consumer buys specially
trash containers that are picked up by the appropriate collector. One
benefit of city or town trash collection is that the cost is in your
taxes which are deductible. 


-- 
Jerry Feldman <gaf at blu.org>
Boston Linux and Unix user group
http://www.blu.org PGP key id:C5061EA9
PGP Key fingerprint:053C 73EC 3AC1 5C44 3E14 9245 FB00 3ED5 C506 1EA9
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