If there is one thing in this world that we have plenty of, it is water.

and government

Food, Shelter and clothing are also considered the basic necessities.

There are many different types of clothing, food, and shelter. There is only ONE type of potable water.

But, you simply cannot live w

>> Given the unequal playing field, I challenge any die-hard libertarian to operate a passenger railroad profitably. I also challenge those libertarians to eliminate those railroads as unnecessary.<<

If something cannot be operated profitably in a free market, then the cost of providing the service is higher than the revenue the enterprize would generate. In other words, it is by definition, unnecessary. No one wants it enough to voluntarily pay for it.

As I’ve stated, I MAY not have a problem with local government doing it – so long as they do not force even their own citizens to use their service.

I tend to give a great deal of latitude to local governments that I would NEVER consider allowing the State or Federal level to have. But this is assuming that no one’s rights are being violated – which I believe should be the State’s primary function to ensure. (Similarly, I believe the Federal govt’s first and foremost duty is to ensure that the States do not violate the rights of their citizens.)

Food, Shelter and clothing are also considered the basic necessities. Should the government be running kroger and macy’s too? Power, cable and gas all have right-of-way restrictions yet are managed (to a greater or lesser extent) by the various PSCs, etc.

I’m not one who agrees with DKB that water shouldn’t be provided by the local government. I have a big issue with the incompetents at the Federal level and the slightly less incompetents at the state being the ones who control the supplies. It should be Gwinnett county’s problem to make sure it has enough water supply for the growth and building it is doing. Not the Army or State of Georgia.

Ox is pandering again.

Amtrak is a fine example of government doing what private enterprise could not. Post WWII, no private railroad ever made much money transporting passengers. Most of them bled cash and desperately wished to dump the services offered, but were not allowed to by federal regulations. Amtrak became the solution in ‘71.

If Amtrak is lucky, it covers its operating expenses with fare income. It does not every make enough to invest in new equipment, to add new routes, to hire more employees…congress appropriates funds annually to keep it running.

Private airlines have a devil of a time turning a profit with subsidized airports. Railroads do not have subsidized rights-of way. Given the unequal playing field, I challenge any die-hard libertarian to operate a passenger railroad profitably. I also challenge those libertarians to eliminate those railroads as unnecessary.

The proper function of gummint, beyond the protection of the rights of the individual, are those necessary functions that the private sector cannot do profitably. Passenger rail is one of those things.

Amtrack is not private. Amtrak is privately held and government run. That is traditional, classic, economic fascism, and exactly where the Obama/Democrat/Rockefeller Republican’ts want to take us.

Here’s a history lesson: The 1st big government President, Abe Lincoln, pushed for the building of the first transcontenintal railroad in America – a government/private partnership. After the War for Southern Independence , Great Northern Railroad built a transcontenintal railroad. They did it in less time, over more difficult terrain, without government help or management, for less cost, and without the near-slave labor of the governmnet-run program under Lincoln.

When companies are truly private, when government shows no more favor towards large companies than small ones, then capitalism works. When companies begin to be subject to government management and/or regulation, we get an economy like this one (where government intervention in the private sector caused this current problem).

I agree that in some things, local and state governments have a role, with the agreement of the majority of voters. Water, power, etc. make sense for local and/or state government to act as an arbitor. The problem comes when government exercises a monopoly and prevents people from serving themselves, and when government starts acting in a fascist sense (economically). Being able to drill your own well, put in your own septic tank, and use them is one example of where government currently interferes.

So he should.

and in the next he’s talking about how he’d veto any bill that came across his desk that legalized Sunday alcohol sales.

Which is why we all should support him.

What an idiot.

No, you’re an idiot for not liking Ox.

Because a private organization COULD take over and provide the same service, it is NOT a ‘basic function of government’.

Water is a basic necessity. A REAL necessity. You really do not want to put a product like water supply into the hands of “private contractors” where they can charge you more money than you can pay for, again, a NECESSITY.

Go check your economics books on goods and services that are necessities for life to be sustained.

AND…while you’re thinkng about that, think about what the “privatization” aspect of what you think would occur: Is it practical to have 2 water pipelines buried in the ground so that each independent company can supply your house with water?

The majority of Georgians live outside metro Atlanta (Fulton, Cobb, Decatur, Douglas, Gwinnett), and the majority of Georgia’s gross domestic product is produced outide of metro Atlanta. Though I live in Cherokee county, and used to live in Cobb county, I grew up and lived in south Georgia and I can tell you that there, as well as Cherokee and anywhere that is not “metro Atlanta”, the level of distaste for spending our money to benefit metro Atlanta is quite high.

As to the discussion on water, how about we get government out of the way of the landowner? Anyone should be able to drill a well on their own property and use that water on their own land, but it is government, acting as a monopoly, that prevents that. Deep wells may not give the lowest cost per gallon, but deep wells are a much more reliable source of water than govenrment-run lakes. If the various cities and counties that depend solely on government-run lakes had kept their deep wells running as a backup, they would not have had problems with water shortages. And, for the record, there hasn’t been a real drought in Georgia for some time. The only lakes that are down or hav ebeen down in a long time are government-drained and managed lakes. I live on a 560 acre private lake, fed entirely by underground springs. It was never more than 3 feet below normal last year at the height of the “drought”.