Perhaps my perspective is skewed by living in the Midwest. By virtue of some private interests, I interact with quite a few very conservative people and perhaps the ‘average man on the street’ is already more culturally conservative than on the coasts.
I maintain my position though. I really have never come across a person in conversation who would take an absolutist position that government action is always going to be better than private enterprise, but the opposite absolutist position is somewhat common.
It say it’s an article of faith because the people I’ve spoken to are not up
for discussion about it. They have established their belief and nothing will cast a shadow of doubt upon it.
> I interact with quite a few very conservative people and perhaps the ‘average man on the street’ is already more culturally conservative than on the coasts.
You’re claiming that all these people you’ve met are anarcho-capitalists? Are you under the impression that cultural conservatism means anarcho-capitalism?
> but the opposite absolutist position is somewhat common
You’ve provided no evidence that it is more common. In my experience, the opposite is true.
I also never meet anyone who has such an extreme view on things.
Here in Europe, we believe that certain things should be public: education, roads, health care, social security, basic research, while other things should be private, like smartphones, cars, ...
And I think for most of the things we like public, there is a good evidence that it should be. I.e. Euro style health care systems spend less money per patient while achieving a higher average lifespan when compared to whatever system the US has.
In general, the argument for private systems is that since they have to make a profit, they will be more efficient. In reality, they have to make a profit, which public systems don't have to. Public systems however have the same price pressure than private systems, since people put this pressure up via democracy.
The biggest issues I see is that public systems are less capable of big innovation vs. small process improvements. This can be tackled via the basic research done at public universities + the private sectors work to bring these to market.
Also, if you follow Peter Thiele Line of thought on how every business should strive for monopoly, so they can take monopoly profits and "focus on the product instead of the competition" - a public service that has granted this monopoly by law would be perfect: they have no competition, so they can focus on making the best product, and they don't have to make a profit, which means they can operate at cost.
Now, I don't think it's as easy as that, but in the end, if you stop being an extremist, you can mix and match all kinds of system to use what is best, instead of striving for something that is ideologically pure.
tl;dr: I want my smartphone from private companies competing for the best product, I want my water from a public utility.
Saying what all european think is a bit of a stretch.
I'm European and I think zero things should be public. I absolutely don't like the European Union and where it's going.
The problem is that if you don't have any incentive to make ends meet because you're spending someone else money, slowly but surely you'll have inefficiencies in the system.
Too many employees, someone making sure a public contract goes to a friend for more money than it should, politicians expensing flights right and left, a service being provided which nobody uses (think about some bus lines).
The same happens in large organizations where who's footing the money doesn't have visibility. The government is the ultimate giant corporation - with the added bonus of not having to make a profit!
We can't say for sure how much money we're wasting, but government spending always grows bigger and I don't see public services improving or providing more value over time.
The last pandemic highlighted how much worse public health got in many countries in Europe. How did that happen and where did the money go?
An inefficient government starts eroding public services, spending the same and offering less, until there's a big crash and then there is nothing.
We saw a bit of that in Greece, we'll probably hear more from Italy soon.
I think we're years away from a collapse similar to the one experienced by eastern European countries post Soviet Union.
I maintain my position though. I really have never come across a person in conversation who would take an absolutist position that government action is always going to be better than private enterprise, but the opposite absolutist position is somewhat common.
It say it’s an article of faith because the people I’ve spoken to are not up for discussion about it. They have established their belief and nothing will cast a shadow of doubt upon it.