Not even in the past, yet we still dont learn

Reprinted from Investors.com

Policy Failure: Greece was told that if it wanted a bailout, it needed to consider privatizing its government health care system. So tell us again why the U.S. is following Europe’s welfare state model?

The requirement, part of a deal arranged by the IMF, the European Union and the European Central bank, is a tacit admission that national health care programs are unsustainable. Along with transportation and energy, the bailout group, according to the New York Times, wants the Greek government to remove “the state from the marketplace in crucial sectors.”

America continues to move forward to create nationalization in health-care, elections, student loans, automotive, banking and Public Service Unions.  When will America, or should I say the government, learn that nationalization is not the answer.  Private sector ownership in these areas give that prime motivation of profit.

Learning from the past, watching the former Soviet Union collapse, what was one of the main reasons for this collapse?  Lack of incentive.  Perhaps this may be a psychological aspect, none the less, real.

The following except is from Wikipedia, providing an understanding of nationalization.

“The motives for nationalization are political as well as economic. It is a central theme of certain brands of ‘state socialist‘ policy that the means of production, distribution and exchange, should be owned by the state on behalf of the people or working class to allow for rational allocation of output, consolidation of resources, and rational planning or control of the economy. Many socialists believe that public ownership enables people to exercise full democratic control over the means whereby they earn their living and provides an effective means of distributing output to benefit the public at large, and a means for providing public finance.

Nationalized industries, charged with operating in the public interest, may be under strong political and social pressures to give much more attention to externalities. They may be obliged to operate some loss making activities where social benefits are clearly greater than social costs – for example, rural postal and transport services. As an instance, the United States Postal Service is guaranteed its nationalised status by the Constitution. The government has recognized these social obligations and, in some cases, provides subsidies for such non-commercial operations.

Since the nationalised industries are state owned, the government is responsible for meeting any debts incurred by these industries. The nationalized industries do not normally borrow from the domestic market other than for short-term borrowing. However, if profitable, the profit is often used as a means to finance other state services such as social programs and government research which can help lower the tax burden.

Nationalization may occur with or without compensation to the former owners. If it takes place without compensation it is a case of expropriation. Nationalization is distinguished from property redistribution in that the government retains control of nationalized property.”

We find ourselves in a large economic hole.  Should it be the will of the people  to own these industries that have found themselves in dire financial straits?  Based on that alone, why?  Nationalization of industry sectors is not the answer.