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Our Long National Nightmare is Over
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The nation will no longer be without a Secretary of Transportation. In a shocking development, Bush's pick is an advocate of privatizing government services, in this case highway construction. My understanding of the matter is that privatization of government services has been a fiasco.
There really are certain pathologies associated with government work. When money is allocated by a political process rather than a market process it tends to be allocated less efficiently. The trouble with privatization as a remedy to this problem is that it . . . doesn't remedy the problem, the money is still being allocated by a political process. The only change is to generate profits for a series of well-connected contracting firms that, in turn, give money to the GOP. The only real alternative to having some inefficiency would be to just not have the government finance road construction, which is a nonstarter.
There really are certain pathologies associated with government work. When money is allocated by a political process rather than a market process it tends to be allocated less efficiently. The trouble with privatization as a remedy to this problem is that it . . . doesn't remedy the problem, the money is still being allocated by a political process. The only change is to generate profits for a series of well-connected contracting firms that, in turn, give money to the GOP. The only real alternative to having some inefficiency would be to just not have the government finance road construction, which is a nonstarter.
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