The post you are reporting:
Keith, privatisation works thus:
the Gov. sells State assets and reaps a huge profit. There is an influx of money into the Treasury.
It's a one-off.
After which, the profits from these assets no longer come into the Treasury.
However, the same assets cannot be sold twice by the State.
The companies that bought these assets pay tax to the Treasury on their profit, but they also keep part of the profit.
Without State regulation on earnings and tariffs, they can charge what they want to the customers.
There is no scientific law that can prove that a utility company, if OWNED by the State and RUN by competent managers EMPLOYED by the State, will not function properly.
The problem starts when people suggest that a State OWNED company equates to being RUN by ministers and not by competent managers employed for the purpose.
Essentially what you write here is correct, the British State has handed over massive inflows of cash to private owners.
This is one reason why Government borrowing has gone up all the time, accumulating in Public Debt.
We will pay the price, and are paying it, to service a £1 trillion Public Debt.
Ultimately, the Gov. does not mind how expensive utility bills become, because the companies owning the infrastructure pay tax on their profits. The more they earn, the more tax they pay into the Treasury.
However, the Government can then conveniently put the blame of high electricity/gas/water bills on the plate of the private companies.
This way, Keith, you are just running around in circles from Pontius to Pilate, paying and paying, and Gov. won't ever bother hearing you. They're too busy messing about with the budget, with the debt-based ponzi scheme, and figuring out how to get a few more billions onto the always-negative-balance-sheet.
