[wolverine876]

Why default to privately owned?

Public services can be cheaper, more reliable, and you have more control than if you pay someone else to maximize their profit. NYC government has tons of experience and expertise in managing something like this.

[factsarelolz]

NYC also has a ton of fraud perpetrated by gov employees.

https://www.justice.gov/usao-sdny/pr/seventeen-new-york-city...

https://www.reuters.com/legal/bribery-fraud-charges-are-dism...

[wolverine876]

NYC government is huge; is that really a "ton"? Private business also has fraud.

[factsarelolz]

Government Officials defrauding their constituents is another level higher than private business fraud. Just my opinion though YOMV.

[wolverine876]

What do you base that on?

[edgyquant]

>Public services can be cheaper

No they can be subsidized with tax money. That doesn’t mean cheaper

[idiotsecant]

Just like private services need to generate shareholder profits. that doesn't mean cheaper either.

Would I rather pay garbage through taxes and fees or would I rather pay garbage and private profits through fees? In general, public services treat employees better, are more accountable to elected officials (good and bad) and aren't obligated to skim an extra little bit off the top to pay someone else. There are countless examples of privatization making services less efficient in the long run, it's not an automatic win.

[ectopod]

Public services can be as efficient as private services. And without the overhead of dividends they are cheaper.

[wolverine876]

I wouldn't take the extreme position either way. Public and private are different tools for different jobs.

[yodelshady]

No, they can be cheaper.

Sod off with this, I've seen someone literally hospitalised because of an army of private sector contractors we've had to deal with finding ingenious efficiency savings, powered by ideologues like you. Now our costs have tripled.

Oh, and guess f*king what; now several other suppliers are bankrupt, taking their already mostly-worthless support contracts with them, because they never invested a cent in resilience, and, get this, are blaming us for giving them that power. The same power they were so adamant, just like you, that they were so good at wielding. Their only efficiency ever was stripping all resilience, not inefficency - deliberate resilience.

The private sector is made of goddamn children at times,

[wolverine876]

You pay for something; that's not a subsidy.