Quite the interesting article; I for one think that privatization can be great our it can turn into a Latin American type “privatization.” The selling of the parking meters was a great idea, though. It was impossible to find parking, especially in parts that I frequently visit such as Chinatown. Everyone would just leave their cars there forever because it was so damn cheap. It was about 25 cents an hour at its highest if I remember correctly.
Anyway, does anybody have any opinions as to how they should privatize it? Take for example the two major airports in Chicago, Midway and O’hare, should they be each individually sold off to a different company for competition? Feel free to discuss any specific ways that they can sell off the sewer system, water system, and anything else that isn’t even on that list if you’d like.
Lastly I haven’t read Rothbard’s essay on how to de-socialize, but if anybody can sum up some major points and possibly apply them to the situation?
Selling parking meters is not privatization. Selling the property that the parking meters are on and letting the owner do whatever the hell she wants with it is.
Regardless, to privatize Midway Airport, O’Hare, the water system, the sewer system, and garbage collection would just involve selling the assets and the government getting out of the way, and the market will work just fine. As long as the government allows someone else to install sewers, water lines, build other garbage dumps, and other airports, there won’t be a problem.
The Rothbardian method to desocialization would be homesteading. That would mean that all government buildings would come to be owned by the people who homestead those buildings. No buying or selling would occur in such a situation.
Maybe the company is it;s own monopoly when it comes to ownership of the parking meters, but you can park on a side street if you have space, or in some areas there are private lots(mostly near downtown, but still); but all in all it’s an improvement over there last system.
“Privatization” is always an hazard. Usually the only entities that have the money to grab the lot are big companies with deep government connections: this usually means you’ll end up paying more for the same sloppy “service”, if the service doesn’t worsen of course. I am not generally opposed to “privatization” but the ones I’ve lived on my skin left much to be desired: if you want to turn people against the free market give them a phone line “privatization” like the one we had here in Italy… [*-)]
Someone told me they privatized some highway in Chicago, and that it’s in disrepair and not that great, etc… Does that come as a surprise to anyone? We’re talking about Chicago politics here.