Wednesday, November 21, 2007

Saving Private Ryan

The Dublin bus strike is over and the buses are rolling out of Harristown again.
But does anyone know what is the outcome of the industrial dispute? Who won, are there winners? Doubtful in this current climate if workers can ever be winners.
We have sold off Aer Lingus and eircom. Sir Anthony bought and sold eircom. What did he do for the company and how much did he make on the transaction?
Larges swathes of the country are without fixed line broadband. Why?
In the present climate of privatising whatever moves it is seldom pointed out that one of Europe's largest and most successful car manufacturers, Volkswagen, is largely controlled by the German State and German Laender. And there is a passionate debate taking place in Germany at present whether or not to privatise Deutsche Bahn. Whatever happens the German State will continue to have a say in the running of the world's finest rail network. ICEs are now travelling at 320 km/h between Frankfurt-am-Main and Cologne. The track and signalling remains in the ownership of the German State.
In a world where privatisation has become a mantra how come the US has never thought about privatising its armed forces? Is it that an army is too important?

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Fair point, but how much is each individual German taxpayer paying to the State to subsidise the railway? Better public services like trains demand higher taxes. You can't have one without the other. Ireland has voted repeatedly for lower income tax, so it's no wonder that Iarnrod Eireann is such a pile of &*$£".
Nick

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