24 February

‘The private sector is always more efficient.’ A slogan I’ve heard since I was a kid. One of the most powerful fantasies of our time. Exhibit A, electricity. Look at how the roles of people in the electricity industry have shifted since privatisation. Enormous surges in managers and marketing people, and no more people actually making electricity. Privatisation shifts a public service to a ridiculous, desperate attempt to get ‘customers’. Customers the industry already had before privatisation, and who didn’t need marketing to. Universities are heading this way too.