[mfairbank]

I tried to address it in my paragraph after the snippets from the abstract, but I admit it was a rather superficial treatment. I actually am most interested in the core of the problem presented by service needs that fall naturally into monopoly (water, power, public transit). We have a long track-record of poor government administration when it comes to these services, and as the New York Times article suggests, private ownership may be no better. So what do we do? The only semi-acceptable answer I can think of is moving the voting date for city and state level elections to weekends/holidays, in the hopes of driving turnout and subsequently accountability among politicians responsible for overseeing these services.