Interesting. Didn’t know that history. Kind of wonder what the arguments in favor of privatization were given that doing so doesn’t seem to have resulted in any meaningful upgrades or better outcomes.
I’d predict it also tied up the collective conscious on funding its own mundane internal issues
This obviously doesn't pan out when you've got a monopoly or captive audience. Around me we have a choice of energy retailers, so we get to deal with the "efficiency" of several competing bureaucracies instead of the "bloated" government one.
Politicians love it because it abstracts them from any accountability to the people, even our left wing parties are pro-privatization these days.
A private company would eradicate it since its effecting the bottom line, but public companies may choose to ignore because the people stealing may be a voting bloc to curry favor.
It may not be the case in US, but you are trading one set of problems with another and that is the best case.
Say what? PG&E diverted money earmarked for safety to executive bonuses. Is that not graft?