| fastyxx said: Think about countries where government is NOT involved in utilities and water. Add to that the ego-centric, wealth accumulation-at-all-costs mentality of a good chunk of our country, and then I will invite you to go live in this new place HappySquirrel. So if a kid is born of a drug-addicted set of parents or a single teenager who made a mistake, we just say "Oops. Oh well. Social Darwinism. Sooner you die penniless on the street, the more stream-lined our economic numbers will look." And by what magical standard are you selecting out of the air that infrastructure law enforcement military education health care = 20% of GDP? Which countries in the world fall into that category? The ones that have a canoe and a slingshot for their military? |
Fredrik Segerfeldt, the author of the book Water for sale, wrote in FT that 97 % "of water distribution in poor countries is managed by the public sector, which is largely responsible for more than a billion people being without water. - - In poor countries with private investments in the water sector, more people have access to water than in those without such investments. Moreover, there are many examples of local businesses improving water distribution. Superior competence, better incentives and better access to capital for investment have allowed private distributors to enhance both the quality of the water and the scope of its distribution. Millions of people who lacked water mains within reach are now getting clean and safe water delivered within a convenient distance."[2]
...
In Chile, along water privatization, the access to piped drinking water in rose from 27 % of the population in the 1970s to 99 % in 2005.[4] In Guinea, "the number of urban-dwellers with access to clean water tripled from two in ten, to seven in ten by 2001."[4] In some cases the incompetent governmental supervision has caused problems, but in "Chile and Argentina, in Cambodia and the Philippines, in Guinea and Gabon" water privatization "has already saved many lives".[2]
What a disaster, poor people actually having access to clean drinking water in poor countries. DAM YOU RICH BASTARDS!!!
On top of that every time you use your telephone, watch cable television, surf the Internet, heat your home, or use electricity do you find it prohibitively expensive? Because through most of the world those services, and their infastructure, are privately controlled and/or maintained.
http://www.nationmaster.com/graph/mil_exp_of_gdp-military-expenditure-of-gdp
The United States Spends 4.08% of GDP on Military and spends the most out of any western developed nation; and most developed nations are spending under 3% of GDP
http://www.nationmaster.com/graph/edu_edu_spe-education-spending-of-gdp
The United States spend 5.07% of GDP on Education, which is more than many/most western developed nations.
http://www.nationmaster.com/graph/hea_tot_exp_as_of_gdp-health-total-expenditure-gdp
The United States spends 13.9% of GDP on Healthcare, which is the most out of any western developed nation; and most countries pay under 9%.
If you add up the numbers, and don't just assume that these are massive expenses throughout the world, you would find that military, education and healthcare in most countries adds up to around 15% of GDP. The vast majority of the remaining infastructure and law enforcement budgets are handled by city/county budgets and paid for through property taxes (often subsidized by the state/province or federal government) but do not account for more than (roughly) 5% of GDP.
