When government takes over

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2009/11/20/BA611ANSAB.DTL

When government takes over important services like education and health care, important management and pricing decisions are left to politics rather than good business practice. These protesters at UC Berkeley were fighting to reinstate 38 custodial jobs that were recently cut and to stop the big increases in tuition.

The overriding message here is a sense of entitlement. Entitlement to a job, entitlement for a student to have “staff” clean up their mess and entitlement to a top education at very low price.

When employees at a private company lose their jobs they are usually out the next day looking for their next gig. When customers of private companies think prices are too high they immediately start looking for cheaper alternatives.

But when government provides these services it is very hard to make cuts and to change pricing without a protracted media and political process. This is just another reason to keep the government out of business that can be provided by the private sector – especially health care.