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Showing posts with label privatization. Show all posts
Showing posts with label privatization. Show all posts
US Post Office about to declare bankruptcy

US Post Office about to declare bankruptcy

From the WSJ:
While lawmakers continue to fight over how to fix the ailing U.S. Postal Service, the agency's money problems are only growing worse. The Postal Service repeated on Wednesday that without congressional action, it will default—a first in its long history, a spokesman said—on a legally required annual $5.5 billion payment, due Aug. 1, into a health-benefits fund for future retirees. Action in Congress isn't likely, as the House prepares to leave for its August recess. The agency said a default on the payment, for 2011, wouldn't directly affect service or its ability to pay employees and suppliers. But "these ongoing liquidity issues unnecessarily undermine confidence in the viability of the Postal Service among our customers," said spokesman David Partenheimer. The agency says it will default on its 2012 retiree health payment as well—also roughly $5.5 billion, due Sept. 30—if there is no legislative action by then. . . .

Very cheap, energy efficient transportation, and the government wants to kill it

Personally, I don't care about "energy efficient" transportation per se.  I figure that the market will figure out the most efficient way to transport people and energy costs are no more important than other costs.  Yet, it seems more than a little hypocritical for the government to try making this type of transportation so difficult and costly.

Let's say you wanted to get from New York to DC this evening. You could take the government-supported train system - which would cost you $153 or more - or you could take a bus, which gets no government subsidies, for... $19. . . .
[These buses] are now, as CATO transportation expert Randal O'Toole puts it, "the nation's fastest growing transportation mode." He adds:
"They do so with almost no subsidies... Intercity buses are safe and environmentally friendly, suffering almost 80 percent fewer fatalities per passenger mile than Amtrak and using 60 percent less energy per passenger mile than Amtrak." . . .
I did a quick search and I found that for this coming Monday the average Megabus fare is $14.73.  The average Amtrak fare is $160.



If you want to see more on the efficiency of these buses, this is of some use.
Private travel to the moon?

Private travel to the moon?

Note that Americans are having to set up this company in the UK.  From the Financial Times:
Britain could become the first country to fly a tourist around the moon, after an Isle of Man-based company announced that it would be ready to take passengers on private lunar expeditions by 2015.Excalibur Almaz will charge wannabe astronauts an average of £100m for a six-eight month journey exploring deep space.
Three wealthy individuals, or astronauts from emerging powers will be crammed into a reusable capsule the size of a waste skip and launched by rocket to a space station. After the two vehicles link up, they will travel on to the Moon. “It is like how private British companies led expeditions to the South Pacific in the 17th century,” said Art Dula, founder of Excalibur Almaz. “We’ve just gone from seafaring to spacefaring.” The company, run by Americans, chose to be based in the Isle of Man because of the island government’s commitment to the space industry, which ministers forecast will soon make up more a third of its gross domestic product. The lack of corporation tax and proximity to the City are also advantages. . . .
Why does the government think that it can do a better job of advertising job openings?

Why does the government think that it can do a better job of advertising job openings?

Who really thinks that the government can do a better job on this? From the WSJ:

The Obama Administration is outputting job-creation proposals at Twitter-speed and ridiculing Republicans for not signing onto the whole package. Which brings us to an already up-and-running federal jobs program called USAJobs.gov. Well, up-and-running is an overstatement.

Americans in search of federal employment can go to a website called USAJobs.gov, which matches openings with applicants. Since 2004, the feds have outsourced the site's operation to Monster.com. Good call by whoever was in charge in 2004. Monster.com is the private company that pioneered employment websites and is today the largest job search engine in the world.

But 18 months ago the "smart" Obama Office of Personnel Management decided the federal government could do a better job of running USAJobs.gov. It spent some $6 million developing a new in-house version of the site, promising to improve the job-search experience. It unveiled its creation two weeks ago. It's a monster all right.

The volume of requests instantly crushed government servers, slowed the system and locked out thousands of applicants. Naturally, the site has a Facebook page. Naturally, the comment queue is boiling over. Examples:

"Why am I having to do the same search 3 times before anything shows up?" "Over one week now and I still haven't received my password reset email!!" "USAJOBS WEB SITE IS A DISASTER!" "I entered Delaware and got Germany jobs and all of the Forest Service." . . .
While Amtrak is losing tons of money, the private sector has stepped in

While Amtrak is losing tons of money, the private sector has stepped in

For fares that can be a tenth what Amtrak is charging (and of course Amtrak is exempt from taxes that private companies have to pay), private bus companies are doing a great job providing transportation up and down from NYC to Philadelphia to DC. So why have the government provide train service? It makes one wonder about the waste of the government stimulus on things such as high speed rail.



While the Obama administration has been desperately seeking to spend $53 billion on so-called high-speed rail lines, private businessmen have developed Chinatown and Megabus lines that provide inter-city service that has attracted legions of price-conscious travelers.



Chinatown bus service started in 1998 to provide a cheap way for Asian immigrants to get from New York to Boston. You lined up at the curb, paid your $20 fare to the driver and settled into a comfortable bus for four hours or so.



Now there's service to multiple destinations (including gambling casinos) from New York and on the West Coast, too. And competitors have arisen. Megabus routes exist between Maine and Memphis and Minneapolis, notably including many college towns.



The buses have bathrooms, AC power outlets and free wi-fi. They're not as fast as the much more expensive Acela train, but they tend to run on schedule.



Bus travel used to be decidedly downscale, with a clientele that scared off middle-class travelers. That's because, back in the days of heavily regulated transportation, bus lines followed the passenger railroad model, with stations in central cities, routes with multiple stops, fares propped up by monopolies and operators with no economic incentive to provide comfortable or pleasant service.



Chinatown and Megabus operators ditched this model for one that works for travelers for whom money is scarce and time plentiful. Who needs a station? Intercity buses can occupy curb space briefly just as city buses do. Who needs multiple stops? You can make money on people who want to go from one specific location to another. . . .
"U.S. Postal Service reports $2.2 billion loss"

"U.S. Postal Service reports $2.2 billion loss"

The post office has a government guaranteed monopoly on first class mail, but even with a monopoly it can't make money.

The U.S. Postal Service continues to hemorrhage money, with a loss of $2.2 billion in the most recent quarter.
The national mail service said Tuesday that it expects to have a cash shortfall and reach its statutory borrowing limit by the time its fiscal year ends in September. That means the agency could be forced to default on some of its payments to the federal government. . . .


Here is an article that suggests privatization.

The U.S. Postal Service is losing money so quickly you'd think it somehow got mixed up in the subprime mortgage business. It's on track this year for an operating loss of between $6 billion and $12 billion, debt surpassing $10 billion, and a $1 billion cash shortfall. For any business, those are some ugly numbers. . . .

But here's how the USPS is not treated like everyone else: It's exempt from taxes and antitrust law. No one else is allowed to deliver first-class mail. Those are advantages, but on the other hand USPS is subjected to constant meddling from Congress -- for instance, the postmaster general Jack Potter has to ask Congress for permission to reduce a six-day delivery schedule to five in order to save money. And these same politicians get an earful from constituents anytime a local post-office branch, no matter how unprofitable for the USPS, is threatened with closure. . . .

Germany's Deutsche Post, which runs the DHL brand, has been private since 2000 and is now the world's largest logistics group. The European Union is in the midst of privatizing the postal services of all its member nations. And in 2005, Japan approved the privatization of its postal service, Japan Post. . . .
Obama administration stops program that allowed airports to have private employees do passenger screening

Obama administration stops program that allowed airports to have private employees do passenger screening

Obama administration sees no "clear or substantial advantage" to private employees screening passengers. I assume that the Obama administration sees no advantage to seeing private companies doing anything that the government does. So much for any rumors that the Obama administration is ending its hostility towards private companies. This is basically a public union protection scheme.

A program that allows airports to replace government screeners with private screeners is being brought to a standstill, just a month after the Transportation Security Administration said it was "neutral" on the program.
TSA chief John Pistole said Friday he has decided not to expand the program beyond the current 16 airports, saying he does not see any advantage to it.
Though little known, the Screening Partnership Program allowed airports to replace government screeners with private contractors who wear TSA-like uniforms, meet TSA standards and work under TSA oversight. Among the airports that have "opted out" of government screening are San Francisco and Kansas City.
The push to "opt out" gained attention in December amid the fury over the TSA's enhanced pat downs, which some travelers called intrusive. . . .
But on Friday, the TSA denied an application by Springfield-Branson Airport in Missouri to privatize its checkpoint workforce, and in a statement, Pistole indicated other applications likewise will be denied.
"I examined the contractor screening program and decided not to expand the program beyond the current 16 airports as I do not see any clear or substantial advantage to do so at this time," Pistole said. . . .
Private Fire Station Companies in NYC?

Private Fire Station Companies in NYC?

Many people may not know it, but the subways in NYC were privately built and run for many decades until city price controls drove the firms into bankruptcy. Here is something that I noticed at the end of a story about fire stations in NYC.

The firehouse was built in 1906. It was the former home of a unit of the Fire Patrol, a private firefighting organization backed by the insurance industry.


I wonder how much of the fire services in NYC used to be privately run.
VA. Republican Gubernatorial Candidate: Privatizing state liquor stores to fund transportation

VA. Republican Gubernatorial Candidate: Privatizing state liquor stores to fund transportation

From the Washington Times:

Republican gubernatorial candidate Robert F. McDonnell on Tuesday proposed privatizing Virginia's liquor stores in order to reap about $500 million in revenue dedicated to funding the state's transportation needs.

The proposal, unprecedented among states grappling with ways to fund infrastructure in the midst of a nationwide economic downturn, would provide for a wish list of projects led by a plan to widen Interstate 66 both inside and outside the Capital Beltway.

"The plan doesn't rely on tax increases; it relies on making Virginia transportation more efficient," Mr. McDonnell said at the announcement of his 20-page transportation plan - made on the roof of an Arlington parking garage that overlooks the often congested I-66.

The former state attorney general also proposed dedicating 0.30 percent of sales tax in Northern Virginia to a regional transportation account that he said would generate $105 million annually to pay for transportation improvements in the region. . . . .
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