'Tis a sad and salutary tale, of what happens when a public service important to national wellbeing is handed over to the private sector in the belief that competition will lower prices and raise standards.
I talk, of course, of the British railway system.
British Rail, twas it's name back in the day and complaints there were. We like to grumble, us Brits, and trains and the weather are perennial topics. "It's raining outside" is a typical start to a British conversation, as if that should be either surprising or an unusual place for rain to fall.
But the trains are the issue. The Conservative government, in their wisdom, decided that free markets would be better than a nationally held rail system. It'd be a brighter tomorrow, one more efficient, and cheaper!
Sadly we have reality, and free market fantacism didn't quite live up to the hype. Ticket prices skyrocketed. Who knew that a service so many people needed on an essential basis would incentivise private companies to raise prices year on year well over inflation to maximise profits. Well, obviously the pinko liberals pointed that out, but common sense could dismiss them. Competition would drive prices down. Sadly that dream fell prey to reality, with its liberal bias. Tickets became more expensive.
Quality of service however, that must have improved? Sadly no. Who would have thought that private companies would try to minimise their expenses? What incentive would they have? Why would they cut staff? Cut back on safety precautions? Have fewer carriages? Alas, reality bit.
But here's the real couple of kickers. You'll like these.
In order simply to keep the train network running now, even in its more expensive for commuters and sadly shoddy state, the government has to provide subsidies and tax breaks to the private companies who employ fewer people and do less. It gets worse. Those subsidies and breaks are more than it cost to run it when it was nationalised. Seems if you want a public service, it's cheaper to do it yourself than hand it over to private markets.
Ah, but one last morsel. A fun one, this. Who do you think bought up some of the remnants of the nationalised British rail system? Why, my friends, it was the German and Dutch nationalised rail companies. That's right, the profits to be made from British customers help subsidise lower ticket prices and high levels of service for other nationalised networks abroad. And it still costs us more. Smart people those lowlanders. Maybe when the US goes completely freemarket, the NHS can try a similar trick with US healthcare.
Turns out there are some things a country needs in order to run efficiently. And privatisation doesn't always help.
And they all lived happily ever after.
