September 22, 2003
LOOKING OUT FOR #1....I'm just copying this from Atrios, but it's really too good to pass up.
Alaska congressman Don Young, who supports efforts to privatize air
traffic control, got two Alaska airports struck from the privatization
hit list. Why the concern? "Of
course the criticism of myself," he said, "is that I exempted the state
of Alaska." But there were ample reasons for that, he said, ticking off
a number of them.
"Lastly," Young said, "my hotel room is on the top floor of the
Sheraton, and the airplanes take right off towards my hotel room. Every
morning I look out and there's one coming right at me. It's an
interesting experience and I want to make sure everything is done right
in that field."
I assure you that we all feel the same way, Don.
Posted by Kevin Drum at September 22, 2003 09:37 AM
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If you want safe air travel, commie-symp, well then BUY IT!
Welfare reform for all those guys over there! Everyone else needs a
stronger Moral Hazard! You people - work harder! And for less pay! Me,
I'm underpaid and overworked!
I've got it - Republicans: the "do as I say, not as I do" party.
Sigh. One of the great tragedies of Congress is that they get to expempt themselves from practically everything important.
Well, Don Young, as pointed out on 60 Minutes last night, has a lot
of clout in Congress...enough even to defy Bush on the building of a
Natural Gas Pipeline through Alaska.
This surprises me not at all that he would NIMBY the privatization scheme.
Young obviously believes that the privatization scheme will reduce
safety, not just for the flying public, but for those nearby, as well.
Regardless of his risk assessment, he still wants to proceed as long as
his butt is covered.
This exposes privatization for the sham that it is.
A lot of rhetoric was issued about the efficiencies of the market vs.
having the gov't do things itself. The rhetoric is very uplifting, and
makes fine references to the work of various economists, American
history, etc. However, at implementation time, what it amounts to is a
funnel-money-to-your-buddies scheme. If this boob actually believed the
maketplace could do the job better, he'd feel no need to exempt himself
from its operations. But he knows that isn't what will happen. Some
insider will be given this contract, and only the barest minimum of
attention with thenceforward be paid to air traffic control by the
winner of the contract. But much of your tax dollars will go into that
winner's wallet.
Hypocrisy, and cynical manipulation. The only mystifying aspect of it
is how they get right wingers who don't pocket the money to defend it
for them. I guess they have no self respect, to allow themselves to be
played for fools by these folks.
Deregulation isn't such a good thing when it comes to basic
infrastructure like air traffic control. ATC is a safety service that
must be provided, obviously. That the U.S. ATC has to coordinate air
travel for an entire country and then some means that balkanizing it
among many private service providers is not a Good Idea.
If privatizing ATCs will save money, how about privatizing most of
the military? We could even hire 'Their' boys to go fight 'Them' and
not lose any Americans in a given conflict.
Makes just as much sense to me.
Henry
"The difference between you and the government is that the government
has men with guns who spend a lot of time sitting in parking lots
eating doughnuts."
Privitization is not the free market. The government is still
providing the service, its just contracting it out. As such, many (I
would say most) of the benefits dissipate. Governments still face an
agency problem, but now its once removed making it harder to overcome.
I've stayed at that Sheraton (assuming it's the Sheraton Anchorage)
and spent an evening eating a room service meal while watching planes
fly toward my window. It was better than television.
What Young doesn't mention is that the airport is the old Anchorage
airport which is used primarily for private and smaller planes. It's
not like he's about to have a 767 or large jet come crashing through the
window.
Privitization is not the free market. The government is still
providing the service, its just contracting it out. As such, many (I
would say most) of the benefits dissipate. Governments still face an
agency problem, but now its once removed making it harder to overcome.
PLUS you now have an extra layer (at least) of management and
communication AND the cost of the contractor's profit has to be added to
the cost of the service.
Tell me again how privatizing increases efficiency and reduces costs for basic government services?
It's a crock, boys and girls. Yet, somehow, it has become some kind of magical article of faith.
But hey, at least the middle management/middle man redundancy of this
contract-everything-out scheme will help increase employment. I was
wondering how they were going to solve that rising productivity problem.
What's more, it's been a religion for long enough now (I'm thinking
especially of the Thatcher "revolution" in Britain) that the effects can
be measured. It isn't just theory any more.
Let's look at Britain. Privatized trains. Whoops, lots more crashes.
Privatized water. Hmmm, lots of instant millionaires in middle management, but just the same old water. Oh, and it costs more.
Privatized airports. Not so bad, I suppose, if you like traveling
through a shopping mall to get to your plane. And of course, they demand
the continued welfare of duty-free zones.
Like most religions, the reality just never quite matches up to the expectations.
This illustrates one of my gripes about capitalism. I know, I know, no one in America can ever criticize capitalism.
Still, here I go. We have become slaves to efficiency. If something
is more efficient (cheaper) than another, we go the cheap route.
The problem is some things you may not want to go to the lowest
bidder. Some things have advantages that are not measurable in dollars
and cents.
For example, let us say a community can build either 3 local
elementary schools, or 1 big mega-school. The mega-school may be
cheaper, even including the added transportation cost, but what have
they lost?
At a local school, the kids can walk to school. Some will be
accompanied by their parents, who will meet other parents, maybe even
spending a few minutes a day chatting outside the school. A sense of
community is built.
With the mega-school, the children are bused. No parents ever ride
the bus, and the parents don't meet each other. They don't feel as
connected to the school. There is no community built.
Still, to the taxpayer, we must be as economical as we can. It is
hard enough to get school funding without adding in extras such as
'building communities.' In America, the bottom line is always settled
by dollars and cents. If it can't be measured monetarily it doesn't
matter. Everything is a business.
What Craigie said.
David W. wrote,
"That the U.S. ATC has to coordinate air travel for an entire country
and then some means that balkanizing it among many private service
providers is not a Good Idea."
Yes, and see what happened when Britain balkanized its train service.
I'm paraphrasing a note Homer wrote to Bart, but it sums up my
feelings for "privatize it all, let the market sort it out" folks,
ahem,
You Die Scum!
Tripp - arguably that's a failure in the specification. What we want
is to achieve goal [x] in the most efficient way. Your example
demonstrates that in some cases efficient execution of goal [x] reveals
that that goal was poorly described and we really wanted goal [y].
Heh.
Kos kidnapped the same same posting.
There's an interesting account of a recently retired FAA ATC in the
comment thread (name is YankeeZulu), who did Quality Supervision for
private contractors. Provides some insight why private contractors seem to have less problems.
Tripp - arguably that's a failure in the specification. What we
want is to achieve goal [x] in the most efficient way. Your example
demonstrates that in some cases efficient execution of goal [x] reveals
that that goal was poorly described and we really wanted goal [y].
Hmmm, my polite response to that is, give me a fucking break. What
Tripp is really pointing out, and what you are either ignoring or
forgetting, is that not everything has a value that can be measured in
money. Mr Market is very good at allocating resources when you can
reduce everything down to the single dimension of money.
But throw other values in there (what? There are no other values? Well, that's Capitalism for you) and you are left floundering.
Where the Right has gone berserk is in its insistence that we reduce
all calculation to economic ones, and then everything will work out. Not
only can't it be done, but to the extent that you could theorize that
it could, you wouldn't want to live in such a place.
Randy Paul: "...the airport is the old Anchorage airport which is used primarily for private and smaller planes."
Merrill Field is one of the busiest (if not the busiest) general
aviation airports in the USA. I gather the privatization plan is aimed
at smaller fields. How Merrill Field and the Juneau airport ended up on
such a list, I don't know. Young's problem is that he hasn't given
special attention to other airports that don't belong on the list --
namely, Boeing Field in Seattle.
I may be wrong, and it doesn't actually mean anything in terms of the
rights and wrongs of privatisation etc, but wasn't Young making a joke?
Mr. Young did come into office after the incumbent died in a plane crash. It could be fear of karma.
Craigie and Aphrael,
Yeah. Exactly how much money is 'building a sense of community' worth?
Is it a fixed cost, or a recurring cost? Is it worth 50 bucks the
first year, and then 10 bucks a year after that?
And yet, in America, everything is reduced to money. Everything.
Someone is killed by accident. A court determines how much money the life is worth.
A person's reputation is ruined, they sue, and the courts determine how much the reputation is worth.
Someone speeds, endangering others, and we've determined how much money that endangerment is worth, and fine them.
And, if something is not easily reduced to money, we ignore it. We pretend it doesn't matter.
You know that Microsoft commercial where the geek is saying how the
new servers help users do this and that, and nobody is interested until
he says it will save X money a year? Then they all sit, fascinated?
That commercial works because that is America.
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