Unemployment at a 26 year high (9.7%)

[mrstickball]

ManusJustus said:

mrstickball said:
Manus -

On one end, you argue about the abuse of market power should companies exert a monopoly or monosopy. Why is this any different if the government exerts the monopoly?

The difference is accountability.  If a private company has a monopoly, the company can charge whatever price they want and deliver whatever quality of good they want, and the consumer has no choice but to purchase the good.  If the government has a monopoly, they need to balance price and quality with consumer expectations (similar to what a private business would do in a competitive market), and if politicians fail to do so then will have to answer to the public.  Note that this phenomenon is not unique to democracies, even a dictarotship/monarchy like Saudi Arabia wants to keep the price of government provided goods (oil) down to keep the populous happy.

Yet in America it doesn't work when government took over public education (costs are rising, quality of care is declining) or pensions (public are atrocious compared to state or private).

I don't understand the idea of accountability. Monopolies are bad regardless of what you want to argue for accountability. The government has been accountable for DECADES and yet nothing has improved. How exactly are they accountable? The fact is there's no competitive market when there's a monopoly - government or otherwise. I don't think you can honestly look at the US example of federally-run programs and think for a moment that their monopolies are something wonderful. This is why I advocate competition in these fields the government has so woefully failed at.