It’s not so much capitalism that breeds innovation, but competition. If there’s no competition, where’s the incentive for companies to innovate or improve in any way?
Take the private water companies in the UK as an example. You can’t choose a different provider, and the service they provide has been getting steadily worse over the years, to the point where they don’t improve infrastructure and we end up with Victorian pipelines pumping sewage into our rivers and seas. But nobody can change provider unless you move to a different part of the country, so there’s no incentive for the companies to improve anything.
So the amount of competition is the exact same as when it was run by the government like crucial infrastructure is supposed to, but the quality is the same or worse?
It’s not so much capitalism that breeds innovation, but competition. If there’s no competition, where’s the incentive for companies to innovate or improve in any way?
Take the private water companies in the UK as an example. You can’t choose a different provider, and the service they provide has been getting steadily worse over the years, to the point where they don’t improve infrastructure and we end up with Victorian pipelines pumping sewage into our rivers and seas. But nobody can change provider unless you move to a different part of the country, so there’s no incentive for the companies to improve anything.
What if instead of competing we were cooperating towards a shared goal?
If we were to cooperate then everyone should co-own it. Which means it should be a public utility owned by us ie the government.
The one problem with that is a thing called human nature.
Humans famously incapable of working in large numbers towards a common goal.
So the amount of competition is the exact same as when it was run by the government like crucial infrastructure is supposed to, but the quality is the same or worse?
Sounds about capitalistic…
It’s almost like basic utilities should be provided by government to all citizens.