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What things has the government proven to do better than private companies?

7 years ago by funhonestdude with 12 comments

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  • sgfc
    +10

    Funding extremely expensive scientific experiments/progress without short-term need for return on investment:

    eg. Space exploration.

    eg. Nuclear power.

    eg. Large Hadron Collider.

  • Yamadori
    +9

    Government is best suited for solving large scale problems and providing necessary but low-margin investments. Need to connect cities by highways? Want to explore outer space and other planets? Ozone layer dissolving? Is your industry unsafe and are people getting hurt or sick? All have been solved by big government.

  • spaceghoti
    +7

    Address poverty. Fund game-changing research. Protect consumer interests.

  • Appaloosa
    +6

    Employment

    • Appaloosa
      +4

      Employment with reason of course!

      • RoamingGnome
        +3

        Quit talking to yourself, people are going to start thinking you are crazy.

  • kxh (edited 7 years ago)
    +6

    With the proviso that not all governments do any or all of these things well.

    * Manage defense forces

    * Create laws and maintain the legal system including running prisons

    * Reticulated services: roads, water, sewerage, electricity, communications

    * Grant and control ownership of property.

    * Health systems.

    * Protect the integrity and safety of food.

    "All right, but apart from the sanitation, the medicine, education, wine, public order, irrigation, roads, a fresh water system, and public health, what has the Government ever done for us?"

  • RoamingGnome
    +5

    It would be easier to ask the question the other way. There are very few things that private industry does better than government. I can't think of a single one off of the top of my head.

    The thing is that pretty much every point made so far also leads to opportunities for private industry that never would have been there if not for the initial investment by government and subsidization by government. Then, the CEO of the company will tell everybody how awesome he is and that he did it all on his own and those bums sucking the government tit should get a job. And the wheel keeps a spinnin'.