The proper role and scope of government

[Undertoad]

Would you want all roads to be toll roads? Would you want all schools to be for profit organizations? Would you want the environment monitored by those who would applying the tragedy to the commons?

Would you want all supermarkets to be public?

[ZenGum]

Originally Posted by Aliantha

About railroad privatization, we had the same trouble in Australia with different guage tracks. I'm not sure, but I think this is still an issue or was until quite recently (last 30 yrs or so).

The problem was that the different guages weren't because of privatization though. It was the different state governments causing the problems.

For privatisation in Australia, ditto pretty much everything Dana said about it in Britain.

For our rail gauges, at the moment of Federation in 1901, every state in Australia had rail gauges incompatible with any state it had a border with. Different Colonial governments talking more to London than each other, vested business interests in each state and general stupidity are to blame.

It took 90 years for the federal Government to "herd the cats". In the meantime we found it was easiest to build a machine that could remove and replace the bogeys on a railcar while it was still moving.

[Spexxvet]

Originally Posted by henry quirk

In my view: to not exist.

[quote=henry quirk;762687I'm not an anarchist (at least: not in formal, capital 'A', sense).[/QUOTE]

By definition, you are.

an·ar·chy noun \ˈa-nər-kē, -ˌnär-\

Definition of ANARCHY
1a : absence of government b : a state of lawlessness or political disorder due to the absence of governmental authority c : a utopian society of individuals who enjoy complete freedom without government
2a : absence or denial of any authority or established order b : absence of order : disorder <not manicured plots but a wild anarchy of nature — Israel Shenker>

[henry quirk]

For the record there's (formal, political, philosophical) Anarchism and then there's ('get out of my way and leave me be') anarchism.

But -- okay -- I'm anarchistic.

*shrug*