this post was submitted on 29 Oct 2024
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Yeah. I'm 100% open to cutting government services, regulations, and spending, but you gotta make a case for it. How would it be better? Could it be done better and more cheaply by private services? How would you avoid the downsides?
Like, we never should have sold BC Tel. We're paying more money for less service now, to out-of-province entities taking huge profit margins at the expense of BC citizens. I honestly think we should nationalize all the fibre, copper, and cell towers in the province and force Telus et al to be resellers for wholesale access to lines. That would minimize the monopoly rents and allow innovation and competition on the front end, where currently, they use their monopoly access to the networks to force us to accept shitty front end service.
Anyone planning to sell a government service to the private sector needs to answer the question of how to prevent us from being fleeced by oligopolists and increasing our costs.
I see you writing that you don't like centrally-managed projects that effectively leverage economies of scale and reverse monopoly to benefit regular people. Explain? Compare healthcare with dental care.
ALL REGULATIONS ARE WRITTEN IN THE BLOOD OF PEOPLE HURT OR KILLED DURING THEIR LACK.
There. I used the clear text for greater legibility.
On what? Hint; if it's spent by the government, you have a say in it. The gov only spends on things we have told it to spend on and how. And usually gets a better rate when you look at it.
Like, I agree that overspending is dumb. But I can predict that the cost of analyzing spending properly to trim any fat will cost more than the fat trimmed. All the money dumped on complications are either there for a reason or there by our specific request.
I'd like you to please step down a little bit from DEFCON 3. :) I feel like you're reading me say "all" regulations when I mean "some" regulations. There definitely exist stupid rules that aren't science-based, or have been ideologically-motivated, or created in response to temporary panics, that could be rolled back.
Like, property setbacks and parking minimums are examples of regulations that I personally think could be removed.
The important thing is that any proposed service cut, or regulation cut, be well-justified, at least as well-justified as the introduction of new ones. We have to consider the consequences of introducing a new rule, or repealing an old one.
Not all regulations are "WRITTEN IN THE BLOOD OF PEOPLE HURT OR KILLED", some are pushed through by (say) lumber companies afraid of losing profit, or tech companies trying to make life more difficult for smaller tech companies. Some simply have unintended consequences and turn out to be worse than not having them.
Ditto government services and spending. There are good government services, and honestly, services that could be redefined, or rebuilt to be more effective.