Stamp Duty

[Alan Harper's Tash]

Businesses exist to make profit, and they will do that very efficiently thank-you very much. If in a competitive market they will do it by offering better products and services at the best possible prices. E.g. Amazon, or indeed pretty much any well run business.

But if they have a monopoly, then businesses are more than happy to just rip people off. Why not - profit is their prime motive, so if they can charge people who have nowhere to go, more money then ker-ching.

What was idiot was to sell off state assets, like the railways, and give e.g. the train operators like 10 year franchises. And WORSE, try to govern them with a toothless regulator that tolerates year upon year of above RPI increases. Shameful.

And who was it who did this? Oh wait. The government. Incompetence in action as per.

How is it that e.g. Unilever can outsource all of its procurement activity to IBM? Or Oracle outsource its marketing? And yet the NHS cannot outsource its cleaning functions without getting reamed? Oh, it's the government again. Quelle surprise. Where is the SLA that penalised poor performance and holds the private businesses to account with property penalties?

Sorry but the government aka civil servants are incompetent idiots who we should not trust to run a piss up in a brewery. We've already discussed on this very thread the omni-shambles that is HS2 and the NHS national program for IT. More incompetent cock ups. And some of you lot want MORE government? You're mad.

All those that I mentioned should be publicly owned and run by experts in their fields on a not for profit basis.

The NHS is another example of terrible management and private companies are queuing up to take the money thrown at them to get waiting times down for the upcoming general election.

The NHS should also be regulated by experts in their field, backed up by a cross party panel of politicians not using it as a political football.

There are many areas where business should be there to make a profit.

Health, transport, water and energy should be totally off limits for profiteering.

 

[Chippy_boy]

All those that I mentioned should be publicly owned and run by experts in their fields on a not for profit basis.

The NHS is another example of terrible management and private companies are queuing up to take the money thrown at them to get waiting times down for the upcoming general election.

The NHS should also be regulated by experts in their field, backed up by a cross party panel of politicians not using it as a political football.

There are many areas where business should be there to make a profit.

Health, transport, water and energy should be totally off limits for profiteering.

For "profiteering" yes. But for running the services, why?

Do Marks and Spencer offer good service? Are they a profit-oriented company? Yes they do and yes they are. The two are not mutually exclusive and if you think they are, then perhaps you could explain why you think that?

For me the key is monopolies. Businesses should not be allowed to have a monopoly. Provided they have to compete, they will strive to win your business by being better. Private (or public) monopolies are fat dumb and happy and take customers - or patients - for granted.

 

[Alan Harper's Tash]

Why?

Because more and more people can’t afford to use them.

Have you been living in a cave for the past few years?

 

[Chippy_boy]

Because more and more people can’t afford to use them.

Have you been living in a cave for the past few years?

I'd hoped you would have thought about it a bit before responding.

First, I don't accept that all of the services you mention have become so expensive people cannot afford to use them. Trains yes, agreed.

But putting that aside, ask yourself why. Why can I get an Easyjet flight to Amsterdam for £39 when it used to cost £300 before Easyjet? They aren't nationalised, so how can this be?

First Group have been ripping off train users for 30 years+ because we have let them. That's what's gone wrong. There's nothing inherently wrong with letting a private company run a train service any more than there is letting John Lewis run a department store. But it needs proper terms, ideally with proper competition or as an absolute MINIMUM, a regulator with some actual teeth. Not once over the past 30 years has the train regulator said, "This year you must lower your prices". Not once. And yet in the private sector, businesses have to do so all the time.

 

[Mr Kobayashi]

But putting that aside, ask yourself why. Why can I get an Easyjet flight to Amsterdam for £39 when it used to cost £300 before Easyjet? They aren't nationalised, so how can this be?

This is genius, Chippy. Why aren't there several train companies running competing services on the same tracks...

 

[Chippy_boy]

This is genius, Chippy. Why aren't there several train companies running competing services on the same tracks...

Simple answer: because the government fucked up the privatisation.

The train companies don't set the timetables you know. There's no reason at all why you could not have a Virgin train at 08:00 and a First Great Western at 08.15.

You do realise we carry freight on the same tracks, operated by different companies?

 

[Alan Harper's Tash]

I'd hoped you would have thought about it a bit before responding.

First, I don't accept that all of the services you mention have become so expensive people cannot afford to use them. Trains yes, agreed.

But putting that aside, ask yourself why. Why can I get an Easyjet flight to Amsterdam for £39 when it used to cost £300 before Easyjet? They aren't nationalised, so how can this be?

First Group have been ripping off train users for 30 years+ because we have let them. That's what's gone wrong. There's nothing inherently wrong with letting a private company run a train service any more than there is letting John Lewis run a department store. But it needs proper terms, ideally with proper competition or as an absolute MINIMUM, a regulator with some actual teeth. Not once over the past 30 years has the train regulator said, "This year you must lower your prices". Not once. And yet in the private sector, businesses have to do so all the time.

Do you look at other countries’ rail systems and ask yourself why they don’t fleece their customers more, rather than how they keep their fares so cheap, whilst being able to modernise their infrastructure?

All this whilst having more empathy for millionaires buying houses.

Bizarre.

 

[Chippy_boy]

Do you look at other countries’ rail systems and ask yourself why they don’t fleece their customers more, rather than how they keep their fares so cheap, whilst being able to modernise their infrastructure?

All this whilst having more empathy for millionaires buying houses.

Bizarre.

Did you actually read my post? Was there anything in it you actually disagreed with? Specifically?

(Some) other countries subsidize rail transport a lot... something we could do whether the operating companies were nationalised or privatised. The reality is, we don't. Who doesn't? Oh, it's the government again.

Incidentally, I have berated my MP on many occasions about the absolutely disgraceful price of train travel and the government doing fuck all about it for 30 years.

What's bizarre is your (and others) inability, or unpreparedness, to actually engage and think about what is being said. That and the rose-tinted glasses about the good old days when you had to wait 3 months to get a phone line installed when the GPO ran the phone network. And the proverbial British Rail sandwich, about which many a sad old joke was made. The services back then were even more shite, but they were sometimes cheaper shite, I grant you.

 

[Alan Harper's Tash]

Did you actually read my post? Was there anything in it you actually disagreed with? Specifically?

(Some) other countries subsidize rail transport a lot... something we could do whether the operating companies were nationalised or privatised. The reality is, we don't. Who doesn't? Oh, it's the government again.

The Tories will never do that, so whether you think it’s a good idea or not, you’ll back your overlords.

Privatisation has failed in all essential elements of society. The Tories cannot run any of them and can’t allow them to fail, so subsidise their mates to keep them afloat.

Nationalise them. Make them non-for-profit and out of the government’s control. No government of any hue would be able to sell them off again.

Selling everything off has got us in this mess.

 

[Mr Kobayashi]

Simple answer: because the government fucked up the privatisation.

The train companies don't set the timetables you know. There's no reason at all why you could not have a Virgin train at 08:00 and a First Great Western at 08.15.

You do realise we carry freight on the same tracks, operated by different companies?

Should they have privatised all the infrastructure as well?

Is there an example of a successful non subsidised competitive market in railways anywhere in the world?