The government might have an incentive to outcompete other companies, but the strength of this incentive is unclear to me. The US government already competes with the private sector in, e.g. delivering mail, but this hasn’t lead to the end of FedEx. Unlike private companies, the government generally isn’t profit-maximizing in any normal sense, and so it’s not clear why they’d benefit from monopolistic practices.
I do not think the government currently has anything to gain by out-competing FedEx. It seems like you’re just kinda just re-asserting the very thing that ChristianKl is questioning.
Can you clarify what your point is? ChristianKl said that my proposal “creates a strong incentive for the government to make sure that the companies it owns can outcompete the other companies.” I partially agreed but gave one reason to disagree; namely, that the government isn’t profit-maximizing.
You seem to be asserting the opposite of what ChristianKl said, that is, that the government has no incentive to outcompete other companies. Can you explain why?
I’m saying that that is the case currently and agreeing with ChristianKI that that incentives pressure against that under your regime.
If, as you are proposing, being not-profit-maximizing is the reason USPS hasn’t driven FedEx out of business
and being not-profit-maximizing is the result of current incentives
and someone claims, as ChristianKI does, that the incentives for being not-profit-maximizing change under your proposed take-the-wealth regime
then the evidential weight of USPS not driving FedEx out of business under the current regime is weakened quite a bit since the very thing under question is that that will remain the case.
The government might have an incentive to outcompete other companies, but the strength of this incentive is unclear to me. The US government already competes with the private sector in, e.g. delivering mail, but this hasn’t lead to the end of FedEx. Unlike private companies, the government generally isn’t profit-maximizing in any normal sense, and so it’s not clear why they’d benefit from monopolistic practices.
I do not think the government currently has anything to gain by out-competing FedEx. It seems like you’re just kinda just re-asserting the very thing that ChristianKl is questioning.
Can you clarify what your point is? ChristianKl said that my proposal “creates a strong incentive for the government to make sure that the companies it owns can outcompete the other companies.” I partially agreed but gave one reason to disagree; namely, that the government isn’t profit-maximizing.
You seem to be asserting the opposite of what ChristianKl said, that is, that the government has no incentive to outcompete other companies. Can you explain why?
I’m saying that that is the case currently and agreeing with ChristianKI that that incentives pressure against that under your regime.
If, as you are proposing, being not-profit-maximizing is the reason USPS hasn’t driven FedEx out of business
and being not-profit-maximizing is the result of current incentives
and someone claims, as ChristianKI does, that the incentives for being not-profit-maximizing change under your proposed take-the-wealth regime
then the evidential weight of USPS not driving FedEx out of business under the current regime is weakened quite a bit since the very thing under question is that that will remain the case.