The Carillion collapse reveals the extent of government outsourcing in a dramatic style, which is making large numbers of ordinary people who have never thought about it before, sit up and wonder. All of this stems from changes introduced by Thatcher and continued by both the Major and Blair governments. Innocent and modest in scope at the beginning, it ballooned out of control more recently. It was not the arithmetic which drove governments to pursue these deals; it was an ideology. Small government. The private sector is much better at this. If this means fleecing the taxpayer, this Blog agrees.
In a modern rational economy, with left of centre ideals which do not exclude business friendly policies, the best model is for the private sector to create new wealth (not churn assets) and the public sector to create the infrastructure, services and regulatory climate which makes wealth creation a contagion in which ever greater numbers wish to engage, with ever more innovative ideas of how to do it.
Government is about collecting taxes and using them to deliver the platform upon which prosperity is built. It is about making laws to protect and empower. It is about managing the nation’s health, education, defence, law and order, public services, power supplies, information technology and so on. Our problem is that governments have outsourced almost everything to profit making corporations who charge the taxpayer far more than in house delivery. This has led to taxpayers being fleeced and politicians losing the skills to govern.
A private sector in which the bills are paid by taxpayers is not private and no place for shareholder profits. If the taxpayer is paying, the public owns and the government manages. There needs to be quite a big remodeling. Is there anyone in the present government with a clue what to do?
You tell me.