Lurcher300b wrote:Out of interest, who do you think should control industries, and why?
A tricky one. When I started studying Economics back in 1969, the generally accepted view was that industries which were natural monopolies should be in public ownership. The somewhat facile example given was that it would be silly to have separate sets of gas and electricity pipes and wires going to a single property.
New Labour promoted the idea of the 'Third Way - not full-on private sector ownership and not full-on public ownership. Somebody else promoted the same idea back in the 1930s: his name was Joseph Goebbels. Furthermore, the chairman of The Nationaldemokratische Partei Deutschlands (NPD), the barely legal successor to Hitler's National Socialist Party is quoted as saying:
"This [young Leftist] subculture possesses an anti-capitalist view of the world, and views the NPD as an instrument of Capitalism. Such a view of the NPD is fundamentally wrong, and disregards the fact that the Movement will eliminate Capitalism which is so contemptuous of humanity....
The NPD is a Movement of the People which will implement its programme of building a Third Power beyond Capitalism and Communism, thereby giving self-determination to the people.
At the centre of our struggle is mankind and Nature. Thanks to our life-giving view of the world, we stand against foreign rule and domination, against foreign penetration, exploitation and oppression. We stand for German freedom, for the freedom of peoples, for a New Social Order in both Germany and Europe.
During this phase, we must use capable intellectuals from all levels in society so as to build our ideology of a New Order beyond Capitalism and Communism.... The global threat to our nations by multi-national banks and companies working in harness with the ruling class is having a destructive effect on our peoples.
The outstanding achievements of the German social system are being more and more replaced by minimal standards."
It seems pretty Corbyn for the most part. And after all, Hitler was a socialist.
So to answer your question, broadly speaking my view is that private ownership is preferable where feasible. This is because of something both my wife (nurse for 36 years in the NHS) and I (university lecturer for 20 years, 12 years in the private sector) have experienced as 'public sector mentality'. Broadly speaking this means that behind all decision making processes is the unspoken thought that 'it doesn't matter if we screw up as we'll get bailed out. It happens in IT all the time in big public sector projects. In my experience, those who go bleating on about how public sector ownership is so much better for xyz are often armchair socialists who've never worked in the public sector and are clueless as to why generally speaking it doesn't always work terribly well.