danoff
That's a realization? That's innovation? That's been around for a long time. I'm not impressed. I'm talking about advancing the state of the art in power generation.
You're right, that's certainly not very complex engineering achievement.
Give me a shovel and a cement mixer and I'll build you a dozen of these for next week. And if Hydro Quebec currently has projects running in the US, China, Brazil, Australia, Chile, Panama, Peru, Costa Rica... I guess that must be because they're lagging behind in terms of know-how, innovation and expertise when compared to private corporations.
You, out of everyone here, should acknowledge that cutting edge technology and innovation can
also come out from a state organization. As if a team of scientists or engineers will suddenly cut their brains off if they realize that they're not working for ACME's shareholders profits, but for the state. That's bull****. Given the proper ressources and the right people, they'll succeed in both environments.
So the Hydro-Quebec ceo is elected?
No, he's appointed.
It's a cash cow? What percentage of your local government's revenue does it bring in? How much is subsidized at the local and national level?
It's owned by the province, and generates about 1.5 billion of net income yearly. I'll have to check to see what percentage it represents. One thing I'm sure though, is that a hole of 1.5 billion in our provincial budget would be significant.
Government is effective. The US military, for example, is effective. NASA is effective. Our law enforcement is effective. The FDA is effective (though not in the way they intend). Government is simply slow and expensive... but they get the job done (eventually). Look at the situation for New Orleans here in the US. Government was slow to respond. But when it did, it responded with huge overwhelming levels of troops and supplies. Money was wasted (and still is being wasted) left and right. Like I said, slow, expensive, and effective. Sometimes too much effect. Sometimes the wrong effect. But almost always lots of effect.
You didn't point out why you're assuming NASA CAN be run effectively by the state while an electric company CAN'T.
And the kind of issues you're pointing out are issues of scale, which can be seen in large enterprises as well. Our main telephone co here, Bell, is a freaking organizational mess and it's highly inefficient in many areas (but as you said, it manages to ge the job done, eventually).
Perhaps you could take another look at that chart. Did the government really do better than private industry? It managed to maintain the levels provided by industry, that's it. You're also dealing with a power source that is the least affected by changes to the price of oil and natural gas, so I would expect that it wouldn't change much. On the otherhand not every major city has the luxury of being able to supply hydro-electric power due to proximity to natural resources. Hydro power has some major drawbacks. I would be more impressed if you relied on nuclear power.
Why so? We have a nuclear powerplant, but we produce electricity in a safer way with hydro-electricity, that would be dumb not to use this ressource, and we're doing it quite efficiently, looking at our profits margings, and my electricity bills.
Anyway just be careful when claiming that your government is providing power "more" effeiciently than private industry, because the data doesn't support it.
Well, it seems pretty obvious to me that it's doing very well. Are there better managed electricity company out there? Perhaps, but looking at the bills, the bottom line is that it's not to the benefits of their customers.
And my point was to prove that a government organization (other than the ones YOU consider useful)
isn't inherently an inefficient one, as you claim over and over again.
By the way, how's deregulation going in California?
Price regulation would simply drive people out of business and create a shortage.
Really? (where's that violon's smilie when you need it) How would you explain that there's no shortage of electricity around here? How is it that there is a number of healty
private (gasp) electric engineering firms around here, getting plenty of lucrative local and oversea contracts?
Well managed regulation would keep oil companies from dragging down the rest of the country's economy by using speculation to keep insane profits margins. Again, in a country that produces moce more freaking oil than it consumes.
