The Perils of Privatization

Southern Water fined record £90m for deliberately pouring sewage into sea

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2021/jul/09/southern-water-fined...

If one paid attention to various examples throughout modern history the general rule when something is privatized is that the quality of the services and/or goods/resources provided went down while the prices went up and maintenance of the plant, property and equipment used ceased. Yet, people constantly propose and argue for the merits of privatization on the disproved theory that it is somehow more efficient. This article is a good example to have in one's hip pocket for those folks. The record fine for destroying the environment and violating the law is, in part, because this wasn't a one time case, but habitual behavior.

be well and have a good one

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Pricknick's picture

If they really want to stop this type of behavior, they need to start sending executives to jail.
They consider fines to be part of the cost of doing business.

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10 users have voted.

Regardless of the path in life I chose, I realize it's always forward, never straight.

enhydra lutris's picture

@Pricknick

be well and have a good one

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9 users have voted.

That, in its essence, is fascism--ownership of government by an individual, by a group, or by any other controlling private power. -- Franklin D. Roosevelt --

snoopydawg's picture

Just like cops can kill at will and unless they really screw up they have been. Congress watched the Sackler family get millions addicted to opioids and even when people started dying they did absolutely nothing. Oh well…people are dying from not being able to afford insulin, or that crazy good new med that we paid the R$D on, or lack of health care period. Now it looks like we need to vaccinate our pets against Covid. Good luck with that.

Just read a sad article about a woman that joined the Pfizer trials and has been sick ever since. 4 months and she isn’t well yet. She isn’t alone. Lots of people who had vaccine reactions are doing GoFundMe's to pay for their medical bills. How many will have to go bankrupt to discharge their million dollar medical bill after being hospitalized for a month or more?

Cost of living in these United States. Get sick from pollution? Or anything else corporation’s do? Sorry. That’s what American exceptionalism is all about.

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9 users have voted.

There were problems with running a campaign of Joy while committing a genocide? Who could have guessed?

Harris is unburdened of speaking going forward.

ggersh's picture

@snoopydawg if so it has Ivermectin in it, which in my eyes should be good enough to keep both you and Sam safe. The last thing in the world for me would be to give Luna a Covid vaccine, it ain't gonna happen EOS!!

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6 users have voted.

I never knew that the term "Never Again" only pertained to
those born Jewish

"Antisemite used to be someone who didn't like Jews
now it's someone who Jews don't like"

Heard from Margaret Kimberley

snoopydawg's picture

@ggersh

I’ve never put my dawgs on heartworm or even flea products here because it’s not a problem. None of them had any issues except the beagles once at bodega bay. Then they had to be flea dipped there was so many on them. Ugh and shudder again.

Raise your hand if you ever had to rake up toilet paper in your backyard. lol..2 rolls!

"Nice pile you have there. Shame if anyone ran through it."

Stinker!

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3 users have voted.

There were problems with running a campaign of Joy while committing a genocide? Who could have guessed?

Harris is unburdened of speaking going forward.

self-policing works well for the stockholders.

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7 users have voted.

"We'll know our disinformation program is complete when everything the American public believes is false." ---- William Casey, CIA Director, 1981

enhydra lutris's picture

@on the cusp

because there is small fry enforcement and cudgels, but not the powerful. Bah!

be well and have a good one.

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6 users have voted.

That, in its essence, is fascism--ownership of government by an individual, by a group, or by any other controlling private power. -- Franklin D. Roosevelt --

will not work.

I suggest the decsion makers in that company be forced to bathe, cook with and use the water they polluted, exclusively, for one stringently supervised week or longer.

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8 users have voted.

NYCVG

according to Hillary, when taking their donations, then they should be prosecuted as people, subject to prison.
I seem to remember Texas does not enforce EPA type regulations, but allows chemical plants, oil refineries, and all kinds of industrial plants to self-regulate and self-report.
If the wing nut governors trust their donors, why shouldn't I?
Nothing to see there, nothing to worry about.

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7 users have voted.

"We'll know our disinformation program is complete when everything the American public believes is false." ---- William Casey, CIA Director, 1981

enhydra lutris's picture

@on the cusp
states do have a ddeath penalty for corporations, almost never handed out ("too severe" for whatever), hence paltry financial penalties instead. Also pointless, in the US with states competing for their presence, even a reasonable prospect of it being applied would simply drive the corporation to move elsewhere via liquidation and reincorporation.

be well and have a good one

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2 users have voted.

That, in its essence, is fascism--ownership of government by an individual, by a group, or by any other controlling private power. -- Franklin D. Roosevelt --