Simon Buckingham writes in reply to Srinath Srinivasa:
> Srinath, you seem to be advocating that because competition does not
> appear to be working, we need political governments to provide quality
> education, care for the aged and drinking water. In fact, what we need to
> get these services is more competition- it is the incentives conferred by
> the profit motive from competitive free markets that stimulates the
> development and implementation of the high levels of services you so
> rightly wish for. It is the lack of choice and diversity of suppliers and
> solutions that causes the poor level of schooling etc. that we see
> globally.
> To worry about short versus long term detracts attention from the core
> issue- what is the long term anyway? Indeed, short-termism is a positive
> thing in a fast changing unorganized world. It is government that is
> short-termist anyway not competitive free markets- all they care about is
> getting reelected.
Could you spell this out a bit more for me? I tend to think of education,
health services, and urban inftrastructure as essentially long-term
concerns, whose success or failure is measured across years if not
decades. The speed and ubiquity of information transfer doesn't change
that -- we don't live or die any faster than we did before, and kids still
take about the same time to become adults. What are the incentives for a
competitor in a free market to provide superior services or products in
this area? How are conumers of such products and services to judge the
merits of competitors?
I can't resist this reaction to "short-termism is a positive thing in a
fast changing unorganized world": a comic (can't remember who) recently
reported that he has a new microwave fireplace -- "you can lie all night
in front of the fire in only three minutes!"
Don Dwiggins "The best way out is always through"
SEI Information Technology -- Robert Frost
dwig@earthlink.net
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