State-Owned Companies

[the last donut of the night]

I often get the capitalist bull that says that state-owned companies -- specifically in `less-developed´ countries -- are less efficient than privately-owned companies. Also, I get the opinion that heavy union regulations on industry stagnate industry. How do I disprove these doozies next time a rightie lays `em on the table? Thanks guys, I need it.

[Lumpen Bourgeois]

SOEs (State Owned Enterprises), as they're commonly called, often are inefficient(based on the mainstream economic standards of efficiency). The solution, according to most free-market fetishists would be to privatize them. However, often privatization leads to worsened performance and more ineffciency. This is partially the corollary of pervasive corruption, but also because some large private firms are often plagued by the same problems that SOEs are bedeviled by. Furthermore, sometimes there exists situations where a government runned monopoly maybe preferable to a privately owned one. See Natural Monopoly (http://http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Natural_monopoly). Also, free-marketeers falsely assume that SOEs cannot be improved.

Check out Ha-joon Chang's excellent book "Bad Samaritans" for a detailed discussion.

[pastradamus]

I often get the capitalist bull that says that state-owned companies -- specifically in `less-developed´ countries -- are less efficient than privately-owned companies.

Well one simple reason for this is because Privately owned industries fail to take account of the value of Labour. What I mean by this is that the only thing a company takes into account is end product which is profit. If a company makes a profit one year of 10million and the next year its 2 million they will examine why this is happening and blame it first and foremost on Workers and cut down on employment to save money. State owned enterprise on the otherhand would simply be happy with this profit - Profit that would be ploughed back into the national economy and which would help fund healthcare, education and public facilities such as roads, parks and social housing. Where does corporate profit go? - Straight into corporate CEO's pockets. Private enterprise benefits a small elite, it simply does not benefit ordinary working people and increase quality of life for the general population - This is rather done by Nationalised Industry. Also an aspect of Private Industy is its poor environmental record. A responsible state environmental policy will effect the policies of national Industry.


Also, I get the opinion that heavy union regulations on industry stagnate industry. How do I disprove these doozies next time a rightie lays `em on the table? Thanks guys, I need it.

Heavy Union regulations only come into play when a Union has many problems with a particular industry. One Industry I can think of at first hand in Ireland is the construction Industry which had a terrible Health and Safety record. So Unions lobbied to enforce Education and training as well as the wearing of saftey equipment, it was all nessecary, its all about preventing injury and saving lives. Union regulations are there for reasons. They dont just want these just despite the demands of private industry. Of course capitalists will complain once they have to pay for training and equipment by law - its all about money with them, not real lives and real people - just numbers.

[eyedrop]

I often get the capitalist bull that says that state-owned companies -- specifically in `less-developed´ countries -- are less efficient than privately-owned companies. That is just not simply always true, cherrypick some examples that say the opposite. There are probably some companies that have been privatised in your area lately (last 20 years or so) which has ended up in a worse and more expensive service (and worse working conditions and wages). He probably has some prefabricated examples dug out by some right-wing think-tank, I've seen precious few statistical research that support their point.

They measure effiency in profits generated for the owners and I'm not an owner so I don't give a flying fuck about their private profits, as long as they got cheap labour they won't effectivise anyway. The only way to force them to automitise plants are to make labour expenisve enough that automatisation is cheaper.

Besides we advocate workers control over the workplace which would be more dynamic and adaptable than both private control and state control.



Also, I get the opinion that heavy union regulations on industry stagnate industry. How do I disprove these doozies next time a rightie lays `em on the table? Thanks guys, I need it.This is the race to the bottom. If everyone does everything they can to please the investors, everyone ends up shitty. What is needed is for every industry to have union regulation so the investors don't have any choice but to invest in an union regulated industry.

Every worker is always attempted pushed down to the worst off equivalent worker that exists, so we need to improve the lot of the ones that are worst off.

[LOLseph Stalin]

Because of looser labour laws, I get the impression that right-wingers would automatically want privately owned companies operating in developing countries. Like why not? For them it just means easier profit since they don't have a specific minimum wage they would have to pay to the slaves...erm...employees. Having this as a factor, of course they would say state-owned companies aren't effective since then they couldn't use these looser laws to their advantage. This is really quite a sad situation.

[red cat]

I often get the capitalist bull that says that state-owned companies -- specifically in `less-developed´ countries -- are less efficient than privately-owned companies. Also, I get the opinion that heavy union regulations on industry stagnate industry. How do I disprove these doozies next time a rightie lays `em on the table? Thanks guys, I need it.

The state itself is a machinery of class oppression controlled by the ruling class. At present, so powerful is the tide of revolutionary movements all over the third world countries, that most reactionary governments cannot openly push state owned industries into privatization. So they maintain a structure of state ownership while helping private companies to flourish by lowering efficiency in the state owned companies. As they need someone to blame for this, they organize phony unions and workers' movements which lead to pre-decided lock-outs etc. The labour union leaders often coordinate the stealing of machines etc. purposefully to lower production. At the end the working class is blamed for all this.

Even having efficient state owned companies under bourgeois rule is nothing but a temporary relief which disappears as soon as mass and revolutionary movements lose strength. There is no alternative to the revolution and establishment of genuine peoples' power.