Do you think it is time to privatize essential services, such as air traffic con

1. 88

   Chuckposted 12 years ago

   Do you think it is time to privatize essential services, such as air traffic control?
   
   President Obama and the FAA has begun eliminating air traffic controllers at small airports and reducing them at large and busy airports and blaming these actions on the sequester.  In order to prevent President Obama and future vindictive presidents from placing Americans in danger, do you think we should take essential services, like air traffic control, out of the hands of politicians and privatize them?  Canada successfully privatized its air traffic control system years ago and it is run very well.
   
   

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2. 84

   My Esotericposted 12 years ago

   You got to be kidding me, all we need is another Enron, Sprint, Boeing (add another 10,000 corporations who have screwed America for money or simply screwed up big time to that list) running our ATC system (or other essential service) for a profit; I would stop flying for 10 years until they prove themselves capable.

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3. 75

   AlexDrinkH2Oposted 12 years ago

   There is absolutely no reason why civilian contractors could not do this job.  I was an intelligence analyst in the Defense Department for many years and we had contractors doing support jobs (IT, etc.) but then I ran into actual intel analysts who were contractors.   I questioned the efficacy of this until I retired from government and became a contractor analyst myself!  We worked right alongside civilian, military, and reservist analysts and we were indistinguishable except for what we wore (in the case of the military) and how we got paid.  Oftentimes the contractors outshined the "govvies!"  Bear in mind government contractors are usually experienced people who did the same job for the government and then switched to contractor status.  Back to the airports issue: the government is now running airport security (TSA) - and how well is THAT working out???

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      My Esotericposted 12 years agoin reply to this

      and how did Enron, et al work out for America?  Do you want them in charge of your ATC?

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      AlexDrinkH2Oposted 12 years agoin reply to this

      Enron is one corporation out of thousands of well-run, successful businesses in the US.  If I tried to list all the times the government has screwed up, I would be writing all day!

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      LandmarkWealthposted 12 years agoin reply to this

      Funny...Enron Bernie Madoff  and numerous examples were caught by the private sector long before the Federal Gov't could figure it out.  So who is more efficient.

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   conradofontanillaposted 12 years ago

   If privatized it might be easier to sabotage air traffic control. In a private corporation, no one is accountable for any misdemeanor, only the corporation and you cannot jail it. This had happened in a pharmaceutical company that made and marketed a drug. Thousands of cases were filed against it in court and lost thousands of them. Not one of the members of directors was punished. The corporation was punished in the form of fines or payment for the burial of those who died taking the drug.

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      My Esotericposted 12 years agoin reply to this

      Perfect!

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5. 68

   LandmarkWealthposted 12 years ago

   That's certainly an option.  The notion that there have been cases of fraud in the private sector as an example as to why not privatize such a service is foolish.  There is no place in the country where more fraud is committed than in the federal bureaucracy, or for that matter our state and local govt's as well.  This is certainly a service that can be provided privately with regulatory oversight.  As far as I am concerned, the govt's role in providing services should be restricted to that which cannot be provided by the private sector.  Among those vital services I would cite things such as...Military, emergency services, courts of law.  But services like air traffic control could certainly be done privately.  The gov't best services it's citizens when it acts as a regulator and arbiter of services that are provided privately.  But when the gov't provides services directly...you always get a result that provides less quality, is less cost effective and grossly inefficient.  Which explains why I have to take a day off of work to spend 5 hours in line at the DMV just to transfer the title on my car.

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      My Esotericposted 12 years agoin reply to this

      Why can't the military, emergency services, or courts of law be privatized, if the private sector is so much more honest and effective than the public sector?  How are they different than air traffic control services?

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      LandmarkWealthposted 12 years agoin reply to this

      Because services like courts of law are regulatory in nature.  It is not the function of the private sector to servce as an arbiter.  The private sector delivers services that consumers demand.  The gov't is the necessary evil as an arbiter.

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6. 74

   SidKempposted 12 years ago

   I think that privatization of air traffic control would be a big mistake. Look at how a for-profit motive brought about the BP Gulf oil spill. No, thank you!

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      My Esotericposted 12 years agoin reply to this

      And many thought overly regulated by the Federal government

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      LandmarkWealthposted 12 years agoin reply to this

      Actually if it weren't for the regualtors pushing BP so far off shore it would have been much less of an issue.  It's alot harder to repair a break when you're 1 mile down as per the Federal gov't mandates.

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