An end to the Fire Sale of National Assets..

There are several problems with Privatizing National Assets..

• The risk of allowing institutions that are obviously "Too Big to Fail" to fall into private hands.
There is no law preventing private companies taking excessive risks of making foolish decisions - there is no law against them self-destructing - they do it all the time. The obvious point is that you should NEVER allow private companies to control any national institution that is too big or too important to fail!
Nobody would consider allowing our National Defense to be sold off into private hands. Richard Branson could certainly run it better than our politicians - but, by law, he is free to declare bankruptcy at any time and sell off the hardware.

The whole world has suffered the devastating consequences of allowing our banks to become "too big to fail". We have suffered an incredibly painful lesson - but we don't seem to have learned from it.

• With Privatization, the un-profitable services of the institution are always closed or gutted. When the Commonwealth bank was privatized, thousands of non-lucrative regional branches were closed. Our regional and rural folk always loose out. Servicing those areas is never "profitable".

• With Privatization, the average user always pays more. When the People own the railways, they can be run 'not for profit'.. They can provide rural towns with a regular service at an affordable price. (which will always be a loss.) They can afford to sink much of the revenue into local wages - they don't need to Off-shore the service departments. Once 'Big Money' gets their hands on that railroad, the rural towns will loose those non-profitable services and local workers will loose their jobs. You can't legislate or force private corporations to "loose money" on a service or even to choose a less profitable option. A CEO can be jailed for opting for lower profits on moral grounds - Only the shareholders can authorize that - and they never do!

It is true that most politicians cannot successfully manage a business or large national utility - but that doesn't mean the people must sell the utility! The people should simply hire a board that can run it well! The utility is worth billions to the people - they can afford to hire 'world-class' management. There are a thousand 'Richard Bransons' for hire.

See our policy on "Privatization and the P.O.E.M. model"