Being a utility doesn’t help. Pubes successfully got California’s electrical system privatized a decade or so ago, and it’s been an utter shit show for customers since. Texas’s is also privatized, and we see every year how awful that is.
I am not a socialist, but there are things I think should be socialized; internet is among them. Anything that’s infrastructure.
But in the US, being a utility doesn’t prevent it being a monopoly. It only allows it to be the worst form of monopoly, a for-profit cash cow that’s supported by tax dollars.
Being a utility doesn’t help. Pubes successfully got California’s electrical system privatized a decade or so ago, and it’s been an utter shit show for customers since. Texas’s is also privatized, and we see every year how awful that is.
I am not a socialist, but there are things I think should be socialized; internet is among them. Anything that’s infrastructure.
But in the US, being a utility doesn’t prevent it being a monopoly. It only allows it to be the worst form of monopoly, a for-profit cash cow that’s supported by tax dollars.