Efficiency Theory

[Max Sawicky]

>On discursive strategy...
>
>We've had a tiny bit of success, in Johannesburg, trying to use broader
(including social) aspects of cost-benefit analysis simply to raise
consciousness about the importance of internalizing externalities, by for
instance keeping municipal water supply within the public sector because it
is only as a public good that a water distribution and pricing system can be
devised that reduces public health expenses (associated with not having
water) or that equalizes gender imbalances. It is only, in short, through
extensive cross-subsidization and other non-/anti-economic methods, i.e.,
the opposite of the marginal-cost pricing implicit in the incentive
structure set up by private suppliers. We can't acurately measure those
negative externalities or how much a lifeline dose of water will counteract
them, of course, but in the process we occasionally have the effect of
putting a slight break on privatization, as their team goes and reworks
their sums... and we strengthen the deeper argument for the
decommodification of such goods and services. Simple stuff compared to
College Park seminars, but enough to publicly battle and sometimes even
baffle the World Bank mission in Pretoria, a crew of rabid privatizers.>>

There you go.  I've yet to meet a politician
advocating privatization who had a clue about
the economic case, such as it is, underlying
his advocacy.  They are always reduced to
mantras about 'the market.'  Since we take
the public interest seriously, I would argue,
we will always benefit if a topic engages the
public's attention beyond the superficial.

These guys can be beaten in debate.  The broader
politics, of course, depend on other things.

MBS