Re: [OT] Sandy Springs, "private" community

In article <5h1g5hF3inh5qU1@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>,
"Alex W." <ingilt@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

"Miss Elaine Eos" <Misc@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:Misc-AF46F3.09434328072007@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Let's hope Sandy Springs becomes a model for the rest of the nation.

Googled the place.
First hit was wikipedia, according to which
[lots of stuff, snip]
In other words, it's about as far from a fair and representative
cross-section of America as you can get.

Sure. Just like Santa Cruz. Or London. Or any other city. I'm not
sure what you're getting at.

Actually, another friend had a good take on it, I think:

---

I often think folks who favor these kinds of capitalistic solutions
don't appreciate that privatization isn't the key to efficiency, the key
is competition.

I always think it's a bit ironic that the most successful agents in a
economic systems (be they companies or countries or other organizations)
usually end of trying to game their system to free themselves of
competitive pressures. To the extent that they are successful, they sow
the seeds of their own downfall.

It seems to me that gamed systems fall most often come from something
outside of the successfully gamed systems. For example anti-trust
rulings or from other country not part of the gamed system or a new
technology approach that attacks from the outside. To the extent that
gamed systems can be isolated from outside forces they can take a very,
very long time to improve from whatever local maxima into which they
have settled. Even for private companies, government sponsorship is an
excellent way to isolate oneself from outside forces (e.g. NASA and
military contractors).

Anyway, the main point is that privatizing government services will not,
by itself, insure efficiency. Public employees can be every bit as
competitive as private employees and private companies can be every bit
as un-competitive as public employees. Private companies are more often
pressured to remain competitive because there are typically more
competitors in the private sector but most private companies try as hard
as they can to avoid having to compete.

The interesting question for Sandy Springs is not what they've done to
privatize per say, but what they've done within their privatization
scheme to insure long term competition and efficiency.

--
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Lots of good cigar info, the ASC Birthday page, FAQs, vendors and more at
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