XPost: soc.culture.baltics, soc.culture.czecho-slovak, soc.culture.russian   
   XPost: soc.culture.nordic, soc.culture.baltics   
   From: anton.usenet@gmail.com   
      
   David Friedman kirjoitti:   
   > In article   
   > ,   
   >  holman@mappi.helsinki.fi (Eugene Holman) wrote:   
      
      
   > Yes. But the usual experience is that the socialist parts of capitalist   
   > societies don't work very well. That's one reason there has been a swing   
   > towards privatization in recent years.   
      
   Hmmm... could it be in some cases just the opposite: privatization of   
   public service didn't work out? British Railways, anyone?   
      
   There is a debate here in the area paper about cleaning of the schools   
   in a neighboring municipality. The cleaners who were employed by the   
   city were sacked, and the service outsourced. It is usual for Finnish   
   cleaning service companies to price their service in the manner of:   
   "cleaning of elementary school 4h/a day cost "X" euros/h". In reality   
   the cleaning requires 6 hours of work even from an experienced,   
   competent professional. The result: you might have cut a third of costs,   
   but in exchange you get a third less of the required service. Pupils   
   attend filthy school premises, allergics get more symptoms, medical   
   costs increase etc.   
      
   Of course one could argue that stupid municipal authorities made a   
   shitty deal, but sometimes it is impossible to know what you will get   
   beforehand and you might be obliged to cut expenses that can only be cut   
   on the expense of the quality of the service.  You can hire all the   
   consultants in the world and still get a shitty deal and you're stuck   
   with it until the length of the contract.   
      
   --   
   Anton   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)