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  #1  
Old 06-23-2009, 08:15 AM
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merrylander merrylander is offline
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Public vs private enterprise

Thinking about this topic I can only conclude that it depends on the enterprise, some work well as private some as public.

Case in point; sitting here reading the posts and the lights go out for 10 seconds - no problem as I have an APC battery backup. Of course I have to go round and re-load all the set top boxes, but power failures are so common here I have that down to a science.

Then I thought of the 14 years I lived in Ottawa where I did not have battery backup, simply could not justify the expense. We only had one power failure in those 14 years and that was when a transfoirmer the size of a two car garage blew out. It was replace by a trailer mounted transformer in 16 hours.

The difference? Here we have Constipation Energy a private enterprise preparing to sell its nuclear plant to the French (BTW the French do not allow foreigners to buy up French companies). Run by a former investment banker who could not find his arse with both hands and is absolutely clueless with regard to power generation. Its subscribers are overcharged to the hilt and some 100,000 are about to be cut off because they were unable to pay these outrageous charges.

In Ottawa we were served by Ontario Hydro, a public enterprise run efficiently and at low cost to its subscribers.

I am sure there are many examples of well run private enterprises and badly run public enterprises.

Unfortunately the private ones have all the lobbyists and propoganda machines. So we are now getting the Wall Street Weeping and Hand Wringing about "gummint interference" over the proposal that they need to be supervised. This from the same slimy bastards that nearly took down the whole economy with their greed.
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Old 06-23-2009, 11:41 AM
MikeCh MikeCh is offline
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I think it's very difficult to assign the good vs. bad label on any business without knowing the details of it's operation. For example, perhaps the outstanding power service you received in Canada was due to "newer" plant in the ground/aerial or at the distribution points vs. the crappy power service in the U.S. that might contain "aged" plant in the ground/aerial or at the distribution points.

The bottom line is that monetary decisions to budget, build out or replace plant is probably easier to accomplish with tax money than with private.

Of course, all it takes from a concerned citizen is a phone call/complaint to your local PUC and THAT private company will get plenty of motivation to get things corrected.....but then I'm guessing you know that.

Mike
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Old 06-23-2009, 01:16 PM
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merrylander merrylander is offline
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The Maryland PUC has heard from me and so has Constellation Energy and they have not changed one iota, nor am I holding my breath expecting change anytime soon.

FYI Otario Hydro does not receive taxpayer money, they run as a profit making enterprise except that they use the profits to improve and upgrade existing plant and build new.

Constellation on the otherhand was investing profits into non-related businesses and managed to lose their shirt.

Why is it always assumed that a public corporation is always funded by taxpayers? I realize that the Right would love to make everyone believe that is the case but when it comes to taking government handoouts private enterprise is well known to have both front feet in the trough.
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Old 06-30-2009, 07:01 PM
Charles Charles is offline
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I was under the assumption that the giant multinationals had bought the government, and use it as their tool to extract the wealth from us serfs.

And they go to great trouble to keep us stupid enough to let them do it.

Any news on Michael Jackson?

Chas
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Old 06-30-2009, 07:42 PM
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Twodogs Twodogs is offline
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The main steam and chilled water plant for Kansas City has been bought by a French outfit too. They can still make electricity there with coal, but only do on extremely hot days when the price is right from KCPL (Kansas City Power and Light).


Oh, and MJ didn't make it. He be dead mang.
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  #6  
Old 07-01-2009, 08:02 AM
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merrylander merrylander is offline
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Geez, why don't we just stick a big "For Sale" sign smack dab in the middle of the country and be done with it.
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  #7  
Old 07-02-2009, 08:52 PM
Charles Charles is offline
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For sale

Quote:
Originally Posted by merrylander View Post
Geez, why don't we just stick a big "For Sale" sign smack dab in the middle of the country and be done with it.
Don't need to, the boys inside of the Beltway have it listed, along with themselves, in the classified ads worldwide, 24-7.

Chas
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Old 07-05-2009, 07:58 AM
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Kamakiri Kamakiri is offline
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The only things that people will buy in a depressed economy no matter how hard the times get, are food, gas, utilities, alcohol, and crystal meth.

Unless you make a good bathtub gin or run a drug lab, every other business is a roll of the dice.

The best way to start a business is to capitalize on an emergent technology and create a demand for it. Back in the depression, it was radio. The first radio sets that weren't clunky, messy (read battery acid), and difficult to operate debuted in 1928 with the RCA Radiola 60 (if memory serves). Philco made it very big by condensing all of the componentry into a small space that could fit on a table using cheaper woods, and calling it a "cathedral radio". That was 1931.

Nothing like that on our horizon. Oh, but there was the prospect of war.....
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Old 07-05-2009, 02:19 PM
Charles Charles is offline
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War'll work. That's the whole problem anyway, there's too many people.

Settin' off a few of them BIG firecrackers will fix everything, even climate change. 'Cause what few people are left will be livin' in caves for the next 1,000 years.

And since human nature hasn't evolved for the last 3,000 years, I can see it happening.

Chas


BTW, I reckon there's meth freaks in your neck of the woods too. Makes heroin look like ice cream.
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  #10  
Old 07-05-2009, 03:11 PM
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Kamakiri Kamakiri is offline
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War works, but not instantaneously.

The government signs out big contracts to pay for war stuff, and starts printing money. There's enough money being printed as it is to start issuing it in 1000 sheets per roll.

Prosperity didn't come to America until a few years after the war, and it came to the US only because since we had to destroy the rest of the world's crude factories which were supplying our enemies, ours were the best to do the job. That gave people a place to work to buy the stuff. A war here would never get the cogwheels of industry turning again on our shores.

Bethlehem Steel foundries that have been dormant for 30 or more years ain't coming back.
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