[fsloth]

"Creating a public institution with no pressure to make profit is a disaster waiting to happen."

Why?

Schools are not for-profit institutions (well, not everywhere). Police don't make a profit. Nor does the fire brigade. Or the military, for that matter.

Are all of these disasters waiting to happen?

[fjsolwmv]

Your examples are all local government with local accountability to a small group of local voters. At nation-scale the story is different

[fsloth]

I don't follow you. How is providing fire brigade services any different from providing health care? Or providing a functional justice system different from providing health care? They all provide concrete but hard-to-quantify value to the society around them, and aim to serve the public good.

As further examples of state level institutions we could also look at coast guard and customs service. And, of course, the tax officials (what ever their local name happens to be in various countries).

A modern nation state is full of public institutions with dedicated personnel to carry the institutions mission.

Public institutions work just fine around the world in various countries, performing a multitude of missions. That's not to say they are immune to various pathologies, but that applies to all organizations, public, private, for-profit or non-profit. Public institutions work fine when they are fulfilling a legally defined obligation under a democratically chosen government.

The thing everyone wants to avoid is pathological cronyism. The key to this is to make sure the political power pool has churn - so there is no predictable kingpin with executive power around whom the power and corruption accumulates. Which, democratically chosen governments provide (with varying capacity, but even two parties is probably enough).

I agree, no one wants to funnel tax payer money just to amass state power. But some things that improve life really cannot in any obvious way be guided by profit mechanism, and some things are just too capital intensive to be able to do on a small scale. The obvious place to look for capital for large scale projects that add value to the general public is the state.

Note: although monarchs do exist as mostly figure heads, modern monarch seldom have executive power. Compare this to some countries with dictators or monarch with actual executive power.

[Zooper]

Tell me the different national-scale story, and why if that's not working, it's not the fault of the nation's law or systems of governance?

[ekianjo]

You have never heard of private military companies? They are extensively used byvthe US mostly for non combat situations. They are very effective, for profit, and much less costly than the regular army.

[fsloth]

That a private company works better at some locations does not imply logically that a public institution is a disaster waiting to happen, which was the original claim.

Let's make it a bit more ridiculous and extreme. Would it be a good idea to privatize US nukes? What would profit incentive provide there?

Remember, we are discussing the claim "creating public institutions without a profit incentive is a disaster waiting to happen".

[Slansitartop]

> private military companies...are very effective, for profit, and much less costly than the regular army.

[citation needed] My understanding is that they are more expensive than uniformed soldiers.

[pjc50]

These guys? https://www.amnestyusa.org/themes/military-police-arms/priva...