-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- Hash: SHA1 On Wednesday 03 May 2006 07:51 it was so written: > On May 2, 2006, at 11:23 PM, Curt Howland wrote: > > On Tuesday 02 May 2006 22:40, Paul Johnson <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> was > >> Portland, Oregon is a great argument against privatization of > >> critical infrastructure. For the longest time, it was the > >> poster child of privatization, with Portland General Electric as > >> the local, private, power utility and residential power > >> monopoly... > > > > Excuse me, but how can "privatization" and "monopoly" be used to > > refer to the same action? A legally mandated monopoly is > > hardly "privatization", it remains a legal arm of the government. > > Well, they're pretty much orthogonal terms. "Monopoly" describes > the market structure whereas "privatization" describes a change in > the ownership structure. Changing ownership doesn't necessarily > change the market structure.
Exactly. The phone company maintained a legal monopoly, granted by government, which would prosecute anyone who tried to compete with it. Do I have to mince and couch words, to say "it's like" it remains an arm of the government? > The purchasing company has willingly signed a contract to provide a > specific service to the City of Portland. Unfortunately, the people of Portland were effected and not just the Portland city government. Having someone else sign a contract to which I am bound by force sounds far more like an arm of government than any private firm I've ever heard of. > It would only be a legal > arm of the gov't if the gov't has seats on the company's > governance board (e.g. BPA, TVA, Postal Service, and Port Authority > of NY&NJ) Merchantilism is a very pernicious policy. Curt- - -- September 11th, 2001 The proudest day for gun control and central planning advocates in American history -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: GnuPG v1.4.3 (GNU/Linux) iQEVAwUBRFksAC9Y35yItIgBAQLlWQf9GsxtSCSduEXDOLcoD9sNtt0yENSKK759 xRPxDc7TVwtGdOiKPJ+2M7tLxi0l7uJ9FjvjUi5MmQfB4aw052vN4zJir9w9qDwb b8w4mvIUoE7I1hPw89sarjE2Sn8r8Fj/RHOQbH0uBmLPYKTOMUdm+gFyLfJ+L1Wd taijIlN3be+WZLS5g38RNe85Sj5Bi2DvH/G3/e0uPAZjOgExD8im+wEO5ylpciNt yEHfHXEK8fEfpGMi2oDGPWkzTrR6/ukMvoDuW3npZsJD2gqvCm6P3AOvlm5OFJBj HTB3erwjMSzygvXCvmZNNSMq1rGqnbKQEB+LjV5fAEjBXjC6FV32aA== =CSjr -----END PGP SIGNATURE----- -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact [EMAIL PROTECTED]
