Things that should be Private Industry, Things that should be Public

Incentives. Everything is all about incentives. Why you wind up doing what you do.

For most of us, we work. Why? To get money. Why? To pay for lower base needs (house, food, health), and higher needs (education, entertainment, Twinkies - which really aren't food).

The incentive behinds things drives our behavior around it. Take energy. If I'm an energy plant, I have an incentive to get people to use as much energy as possible, because I make more money. That means the more energy saving appliances out there, the worse my business gets. Of course, as a consumer, I have an incentive to buy energy saving appliances - unless, of course, the cost of those appliances is more than what I'd save on electricity. Unless my incentive was to save the planet -

OK - we can go around like this forever. You get the point. So, the incentive behind something can drive behavior. Let's go back to our energy company. In California, they passed a law saying that energy companies not only get money for how much electricity they *sell*, but also how much energy their customers *conserve*. If they get customers to use less electricity, they get even *more* money then they would have from people using energy alone.

Now, the energy company has the same incentive (get more money), but there's a path to get even *more* money by encouraging good energy policy with its customers. Perhaps using the power of bulk buying to purchase efficient light bulbs for its customers and giving them out to their customers, or helping customers insulate their homes, and so on.

There are some people who would argue that *everything* should be private industry, because "that works best!" Sure - tell that to the banking, real estate, auto industry, and a few others. But the point isn't "some businesses have good managers and ideas, some don't", it's the *incentive* behind their drive.

Let's take the courts. If the incentive of the court is to make money - then they're going to seek things out that make more money. Imagine if you were arrested for a crime, and the judge sent you to jail. Not because you were guilty, but because "This trial is brought to you by Johnson Prisons - and they just paid me a great kickback to slap your ass in the pokey!"

I know - never going to happen. Until you read about a case where judges were getting kickbacks from "youth detention centers" in areas where teens were getting trials without lawyers and amazingly high incarceration rates.

There are reasons why we have laws against bribing, and why we have a government that provides services that provides those services regardless of your ability to pay them.

So just for fun, I've got a list of jobs that work best as a public service (aka - paid for by taxpayer dollars and run by neutral government agencies), and things that should be private.

Public:

Firefighters
Police
Courts
Health Care (sorry, but if my leg stays broken because I don't have the funds to fix it, that's screwed up)
Energy (yes, energy. The incentive for energy companies is to sell more energy, regardless of whether it hurts the environment or the public or not.)
Water
Armies
Education

Private:

Banks
Grocery stores
Electronic gadget makers
Automobile manufacturers
Bookstores
You know what, probably everything I didn't list under "Public".

I'm pretty sure I missed some things. This is just a short list. I guess this is a backlash from me for all of the "Private industry is the best at *everything*!" Because there are some things I just don't find it so.

And privatized prison systems are probably #1 on the list. I can imagine few things more evil than people having a business to keep people locked up - when that provides every incentive in the world to lock up more people, rather than rehabilitating them. It creates incentives for trying to get more laws on the books to put people in jail, rather than fixing the ills of society.

I don't get the union hate

Right now, there are people who are actively fighting against the nomination of potential labor-secretary Hilda Solis because she is pro-union.

Why do people hate unions?

Do you have the right to quit your job when you want? I'm pretty sure most of us would say yes.

Do a group of people have the right to all quit their job at once? Again, most people would say yes.

Do a group of people have the right to say "Unless we get X, Y, Z we're all going to quit, oh and Bob here who's a lawyer is going to work on the contracts"? Again, most people would say yes.

Does their employer have the right to say "Screw you all, you're all fired! I'll take the financial risk because I'm not giving in to your demands."? I'm pretty sure people would say "yes".

Sure - unions can ask for to much. Employers can demand to much. You know what that's called?

Capitalism.

People negotiating for their contracts to maximize their income while companies negotiate to give them the least? Last time I checked, that's the law of supply and demand at work. If a company makes a stupid ass contract that costs them money (as some would argue GM did with the unions), that's their own fault. They should have negotiated better. If a union doesn't get everything they want - again, they should have negotiated better. If the company up and moves overseas, well, again, that's capitalism - but then again, the company better be willing to pay the other prices (language barrier, etc, etc, etc).

So again, what's wrong with people banding together in having their say? I just don't get the "OMG UNIONS EVIL" mantra I see from some corners.

A simple web ad request

Dear web ad makers,

Stop making stupid ass annoying banner ads. You know the ones I'm talking about. Like the one with the busty girl with a giant spider crawling up her blouse - and then she smiles at the viewer when the spider stops moving to tell you about low interest rates.

I get it - you need to capture our attention. Like with an animated referee who looks like he's blowing his whistle while waving his arms at you. You want me to look at your ad. But do you really think that hurting my eyes with your 4 frames of animation are going to make me "stop and take your survey"?

How about the ones where if my mouse drifts over, you expand your ad to block my view of the story so you can tell me about weight loss pills. If you were just at the side, I'd see you. Really I would. You don't have to get in my fucking way. If you were a guy in the theater pulling the same crap, I'd start flicking Junior Mint filling at the back of your head, so when you finally noticed your hair would be covered in minty snot like stuff. But you're just an ad, so I can just click the X or refresh the page and hope you go away.

And remember how much I hate your product. Whatever it is.

I don't install ad block software. I could, but I just haven't. I can usually ignore the "Punch the Monkey" or "Scariest Video" flashing in a way that would put me into a seizure.

Just - stop it. Look at Google. Do they annoy the fuck out of people? No. They don't. And they've made billions. With a B. Because people can look at them and actually go "Huh - diet pill. Sounds interesting."

It's interesting that as soon as Microsoft won the bidding to host ads on Digg, these annoying ass advertisements started. Hm - Microsoft and annoyance. Why am I not surprised?

Date rape drug in toys

We have some of these in the house - you touch the little balls together, get them wet, and they stick together. Fun little toy for the kids.

Well, not any more, I guess.

Whatever happened to consumer safety laws? Did I miss something and they all get thrown out?

Exclusives: The Last Ditch of Desperation

When I see a company say "This game/movie/market item is *only* available here", then I know that it's in real financial trouble.

Today's example: Blockbuster. They are now offering the movie 1408 *only* as a rental through Blockbuster. As it turns out, this isn't accurate (it's available through Netflix, their main competitor right now).

But I always hate these moves. Instead of competing based on how good their service is (and people I've talked to say that Blockbuster online system really stinks, though it's getting better), once you start the path of "Oh, well, we made a deal, and if you want X, you have no choice than to deal with us" - that's when I know they're in financial trouble.

If you can't compete off of value, don't try to get my money by making yourself the only way I can get to something. It's the reason why I never bought Chulip from Gamestop with their "only *we* are allowed to sell this game - suckers!", and it's certainly not going to make me rush into a Blockbuster any time soon.