I think “private monopolies are worse than government ones” is probably true in my experience as well. Although some of this is the subjective experience of having to pay money to be treated badly.
I think this makes me believe more strongly in competition as the main reason why the USPS is comparatively well-run.
Edit:
I would still expect private monopolies to be run more cost-efficiently than government ones. Although I’m not sure about cases like utilities where their profits are directly tied to their costs by government regulations.
“subjective experience of having to pay money to be treated badly”
Is this perhaps a bias view? I’m thinking about the reactions (I think this was documented but don’t have links to provide) to airline that were pricing for bags and, I think. even meals. This actually made it cheaper for many to fly but everyone hated having the line item pricing model compared to the bundled (and so largely hidden) pricing model.
To be honest, I’m not even sure I know how to price any consumption of public service beyond the directly observable but will not include portion of my tax paid in (though I suppose I could figure out something there).
I think “private monopolies are worse than government ones” is probably true in my experience as well. Although some of this is the subjective experience of having to pay money to be treated badly.
I think this makes me believe more strongly in competition as the main reason why the USPS is comparatively well-run.
Edit:
I would still expect private monopolies to be run more cost-efficiently than government ones. Although I’m not sure about cases like utilities where their profits are directly tied to their costs by government regulations.
“subjective experience of having to pay money to be treated badly”
Is this perhaps a bias view? I’m thinking about the reactions (I think this was documented but don’t have links to provide) to airline that were pricing for bags and, I think. even meals. This actually made it cheaper for many to fly but everyone hated having the line item pricing model compared to the bundled (and so largely hidden) pricing model.
To be honest, I’m not even sure I know how to price any consumption of public service beyond the directly observable but will not include portion of my tax paid in (though I suppose I could figure out something there).