What *is* the problem with the fact that the private sector can't compete with the public sector?

Question

The whole reason for the public sector to do something is that it can succeed where the private sector could not.

Answer 1

That's not exactly true.



Since the government taxes regardless of its expenditures, programs that are irresponsible, insolvent or even unnecessary can continue to be funded. In these cases, we don't want the government to "succeed." The money is being pulled out of the private sector where it's more productive to pay for wasteful government programs.



Also, government "succeeding" seems to mean incurring massive deficits and debt. If that's success, then success doesn't mean anything.



Finally, the free market can compete in most areas, but when the public sectors gets basically an unlimited budget and sets ALL the rules of the game, the deck is unfairly stacked against the marketplace.

Answer 2

How wrong you are. Take as an example the US Post Office. If it was doing its job, company's like Federal Express, UPS, and others would have never gotten off the ground.



It is the private sector that is forced to pay for the many inefficiencies that come with the public dole. If the public sector were required to work in the black in order to survive, there would be no public sector. Just as there would be no private sector if it failed to work in the black. The bottom line is, the public sector works with unlimited resources that would be unthinkable for the private sector. Hell, almost anyone can be successful with an unlimited budget.

Answer 3

The public sector has no profit motive and generally no competition, therefore they have no motivation to do anything in the most efficient and cost effective manner. If a legitimate businessman were too look at an itemized billing sheet from the pentagon for example, it would likely be like fingernails down a chalkboard. He would be baffled by the waste and inflated prices.



Why are 24 people on the payroll for a job one person can do?

Why are we paying 10 times the normal amount for consulting fees?

Why are we being charged 400 $ for a can on folgers coffee?



Its not a matter of the private sector being unable to, its that they are not allowed to.

Answer 4

When the source of income is taxes, there is a lack of competition and need of result.



The public sector could essentially pay people to dig holes and fill them up all day long. If this was done on the private sector, they would go out of business and have to change to something more productive. To change public sector work (or pay) you need to go through a bureaucratic process.



Also public sectors have the ability to crowd out ideas. If we are working on trying to create a new source of clean renewable energy and everyone is working on their own thing. Once the public sector picks a choice and throws a lot of money in that direction, then all focus will be on that direction, so it is essentially guessing at what innovation is the best.



This is seen especially in war where such decisions are of such a nature, like in WW2 the Japanese building a microwave death ray instead of a nuclear bomb.

Answer 5

The private sector performs services better and has a profit motive. If the public sector was so good, then North Korea would be the richest nation on the planet.

Answer 6

Matthew as you well know the problem lies in the fact that they can't compete and without the private sector the public sector can't exist. If the private sector fails the public sector can't receive revenue through taxes or if you prefer forced servitude

Answer 7

The Public sector is costing everyone......the private sector cost only those who believe in an idea, a concept or a theory that has actual practical purpose.





Private sector innovates...



Public sector pirates the ideas of the private sector.

Answer 8

Tell you what. You set up a private grocery store, and I'll set up a public one across the street. Your groceries will be at a fair price, but mine will be "free." They'll mostly be rotten, but I won't charge anyone to come in and take them.



Instead, I'll get the government to just take a little bit out of everybody's paychecks--whether they shop at my store or not--to cover my expenses. If my expenses increase, I'll just take more.



Let's see how long your private sector competition can survive in that sort of marketplace.



It's true that the public sector is in place to do something that the private sector cannot. That thing is using force. Force is the only tool that the government has at its disposal, and it must only be used to protect the rights of its citizens against those who initiate force against us. The government must NEVER initiate force against its citizens.



Taxing citizens to pay for public education--which is not in defense of any rights enumerated in the Constitution--is an initiation of force against the public.

Answer 9

that would be a fine argument if the public sector actually succeeded, but the private sector is broke and continues to spend like it was succeeding.



in the private sector, if a company did that, it would either need bailing out or it would close

Answer 10

Ok. In all fairness let's consider this.



I know an employee of the Alabama School System who managed to collect somewhere around $300,000.00 when he retired as a book store manager at a state college, plus his regular retirement pay.



The corrput State of Alabama deemed certain employees too valuable to retire and offered them the deal that if they wanted to work three years past retirement they would escrow the retirement money for those years and pay them a lump sum plus their regular retirement.



In the meantime, public school teachers are among the lowest paid in the United States. The only "teachers" who benefited from this giveaway program were ones in Administration, leaving the rank and file to twist on the vine and drive 15 year old cars while they paid mountains of student loan debt.



So there is a whiff of truth in Tea Party assertions, but only a whiff.

Answer 11

Wrong, the point of the public sector is that it is a job that should not be concerned with profit and loss, like police and fire departments. Also, officers that are responsible for public safety should be held accountable through the democratic process.

Answer 12

You are SO wrong.



Please : Look at the VA. Healthcare done slowly and badly, in general, as compared to private hospitals.



Look at highways : ANY private turnpike as compared to 'regular' roads.



Look at private versus public college education, or elementary education (private vs public).



Government is necessary when you have cumbersome needs shared by multiple states : National defense, immigration / naturalization.



How can you deny that government is run poorly, has extreme levels of waste and fraud, and it is poorly done? What does it hurt to look reality in the eye? Denial is not just a river in the democratic republic of Egypt.

Answer 13

Small businesses can't afford to compete with the so-called public sector. Small business must turn a profit to remain afloat. The government does not. Although I must question how much longer our government will remain afloat.

Answer 14

The public sector can always perform a job at a lower cost than private enterprise. The problem is, no one makes a profit. Doing something without a profit is a sin in a capitalist economy.