For some weird and unexplainable reason, people normally expect better services from private companies than from their own governments. This is not the case for our citizens in Estonia. https://qz.com/1535549/living-on-the-blockchain-is-a-game-changer-for-estonian-citizens/
@yogthos On the other hand, reason why in many countries public services are so poor is the culture of the public sector itself.
In Poland for example a senior legal advisor in a Ministry earns ⅓ of what he/she would earn in a private legal company. This is ridiculous, but if you propose raising their salaries, there will be opposition from... trade unions and from the media/citizens.
> North America
Using USA as an example for anything related to *modern* economy is a waste of time, just as using USSR. Services in USSR were all public... and you know what :)
> private sector always ends up being more expensive
Private sector is poor at providing mass-scale services with low profit margins. Public sector is poor at providing services that require flexibility and results-driven approach.
Each of them has its place.
@kravietz same problem in Canada, and there are plenty of other examples around the world. Chile and Lebanon are some really extreme examples.
Personally, I don't see any reason why public sector has to be fundamentally less efficient. There are plenty of different ways to run it.
For example, Canada has the concept of Crown corporations that are publicly owned but are run as a non-profit company.
@yogthos I've studied this a lot and yes, you certainly can run public sector enterprise efficiently. You can apply goal-oriented management, you can use process quality optimisation methodologies etc. I'm also working in public sector in the UK and it's definitely working this way.
You have however remember that there are countries like France, Italy or most of Eastern Europe where bureaucratic red tape is legendary (and I can confirm first-hand).
@kravietz right, so it's not really a problem of public vs private, but rather how a particular company or government is run.
@kravietz private sector always ends up being more expensive and provides worse service in the long run because the motive is profit.
Take a look at the telecom industry in North America as a perfect example. The service is terrible and the prices are atrocious.
Now many cities are starting to provide public internet which provides strictly superior service. It's so effective that the companies can't compete and are trying to make the public service illegal.