Yes, the UK probably witnessed the fastest creation of monopolies it had witnessed when utilities were sold off under governments supposedly big fans of a 'free market'. The country is still paying the price, notably in terms of water.
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Completely. What is also interesting is that at privatisation of all these services the public were promised that the move from stodgy state-run corporations would bring competition and with it better services and lower prices. Yet, quickly, let alone these decades on we see that was all illusory.
We might assume that there are some decent companies out there, but they do not appear to be the ones who won out. Instead the companies who run so many services have proven to follow practice that would be seen as poor in any capitalist enterprise. Perhaps the (personal) greed was to be expected.
Still, the level which it has risen, combined with the loading of debt from other sources on to companies, suggests that a particular breed of capitalism was really promoted by the selling off of such services. It is interesting to note how many of the companies are based abroad. I often noted that
due to EDF (né Électricité de France), the French President had greater control over UK electricity prices than the British Prime Minister. I am not saying these overseas companies were any better than the UK ones they brought the businesses from, but again going back to the privatisation stage I
imagine few voters who backed it envisaged a large-scale sell off ultimately to foreign companies who have proven to provide a worse service at greater cost to consumers than in their home countries. Regulators have certainly proven toothless. Consequently the UK now has a situation where poor,
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