If you're gonna privatise, then do it for real

In the land of Oz, we bitch and moan about the failures of our past privatisations. Look at Telstra ! Look at the train network ! Look at the trams ! Look at the banks !

Now just because our media elites and chardonnay socialists complain about privatisation, it doesn't make it true.

You see, when you privatise an industry, not only do you allow private 'for-profit' enterprises to own and operate the business, but you REALLY allow them to own and operate the business as they need to, in order to respond to the dynamics of free markets and to changing market conditions.

Hence you don't regulate the life out of an industry. But why do we have hundreds of pages of regulations telling a telecoms operator or a train network or an airline exactly how they must provide services, how much they can charge their customers, and if they can expand or contract their network ?

The fear-mongering socialists amongst us fear the evil capitalists and their profit-making mentality.. scary !!

Look at the horrible outcome since Telstra was partly privatised and other competitors were granted licenses. Optus, Vodafone et al. Telecoms have become infinitely cheaper and better for millions of Australians !

But meanwhile, the socialistas lobby government to regulate every industry, every water and electricity provider, every train and tram company - tell them the what, the how and the how much they must provide. Its not a free market, its a regulatory minefield.

Japan is smarter than us, and has one of the best rail networks on the planet. It was fully privatised in 1987 and trains have an average delay of 0.6 minutes.

Now they are privatising Japan Post. Good on them.