Poll: 78% of Argentines want return to Government-run utilities

[UpInArms]

http://www.marketwatch.com/news/story.asp?guid=%7B41B3CCBC%2DA43E%2D4F4F%2DAAEA%2D4FCA5B75D6FA%7D

BUENOS AIRES (MarketWatch) -- In a sign that Argentine President Nestor Kirchner's frequent bashing of privatized utility companies may be swaying public opinion, a poll published Monday showed that 78% of those asked said they want public services to return to state hands.

Local pollster Fara & Asociados conducted the survey of 440 households between March 5 and March 10 in greater Buenos Aires reported a margin of error of 4.6 percentage points. The poll was published in financial newspaper El Cronista.

When asked, "Do you think that the public services should return to the hands of the state?" 78% said yes, 14% said no, and 8% said they were unsure or didn't know.

The percentage of those who responded "yes" in the recent poll was up from 67% in a September 2004 poll and from 36% in November 2000, the firm reported.

...more...

and a bit of history:

http://www.motherjones.com/news/feature/2000/03/argentina.html

Don't Cry for Bush, Argentina

excerpt:

But no one had to prepare a prompt card to remind him who stepped down as president of Argentina in December. Shortly before Bush announced his own campaign for president, he had received a visit from Carlos Saul Menem, the right-wing leader of Argentina for the past decade. The two men retired to an Austin country club, where they were joined by Bush's father. Governor Bush had the flu, so he contented himself with riding along as the former president and Menem played a round of golf.

The capitol press corps trailed along, dutifully recording the governor's cordial relationship with a visiting head of state. Unknown to the assembled reporters, however, was the story of how Bush and his family became immersed in Argentine politics. The little-known tale begins with George W. making a phone call to secure a $300-million deal for a U.S. pipeline company -- a deal that provoked a political firestorm in Argentina, drawing scrutiny from legislators and a special prosecutor. The episode marked one of George W.'s first ventures into foreign affairs, demonstrating the fundamental rule by which the Texas governor and his family conduct business: Always know that the Bush name is a marketable commodity.

<snip>

Unlike Bush, Terragno achieved political prominence the old-fashioned way: through a life dedicated to public service. A noted journalist and public official, he was forced into exile for 10 years after the military seized power in Argentina in 1976. Only after Alfonsín restored civilian rule did Terragno return to his homeland, where he went on to serve as minister of public works, a member of congress, and most recently as cabinet chief to the newly elected president, Fernando de la Rua.

<snip>

A few weeks after the U.S. presidential election in 1988, Terragno received a phone call from a failed Texas oilman named George W. Bush, who happened to be the son of the president-elect. "He told me he had recently returned from a campaign tour with his father," the Argentine minister recalls. The purpose of the call was clear: to push Terragno to accept the bid from Enron.

"He was taking a moment to call me because he knew that I was dealing with this," says Terragno, adding that Bush told him that he "viewed with some concern the slow pace of the Enron project." According to Terragno, the president-elect's son noted that a deal with Enron "would be very favorable for Argentina and its relations with the United States."

...more...

[acmavm]

1. W making a call to a government official in Argentina to promote a

deal for Enron?

Hell, he wouldn't do anything like that. He doesn't even know Kenny Boy Lay, don't ya know?

[expatriot]

2. I read this first as "78% of Americans..." n/t

[LiberallyInclined]

3. unfortunately, we have a lot of bad times to go through before then-

but wait about 15-20 years and it will say "78% of Americans..."

[Selatius]

4. Not if the "liberal media" has a chance at changing the numbers

Just repeat the mantra that privatization is good long enough and often enough, and people will believe it.

[LiberallyInclined]

24. what "liberal media"?

this is corporate amerika.

[AP]

6. More than 50% of Montanans felt that way in Nov 2004.

[deadite]

5. Good for them!

Of course marketwatch would like us to believe that this is just a result of Kirchner's "bashing", but my guess would be public disgust with the utility companies in fact probably shares a common cause with Kirchner's critiscisms- a feeling that they're delivering a crappy service and screwing their customers. Love the way marketwatch tries to present the fact that "only" 65% of Argentinians believe the state would do a better job as a lack of enthusiasm for re-nationalisation!

[AP]

7. Yeah. It was the private utilities' bashing the working and middle class

that is responsible for those numbers.

[TheFarseer]

8. If you don't like public utilities

you are either an owner of a utilities company or a damn fool.

[Durant]

9. Government run projects are usually inefficient..

and poorly run. Privately run companies are mostly well run but only lookout for the bottom line and care little about the consumer. Tough to find a happy medium. Hopefully the Argentines will reach a solution <though that's been problematic for years and years>..

[Mandate My Ass]

10. Privatization is antithetical to the public good

particularly monopolistic privatization and even in competitive markets, deals which are kept from public scrutiny are often made. As we saw with Enron, creating a false shortage and ripping people off in the name of satisfying the shareholders is one of the biggest problems with privatizing utilities.

[bemildred]

11. Baseless generalizations.

Government activities can are often are run well and efficiently.
Private enterprise are quite frequently not able to wipe their own
ass without government welfare to prop them up. Usually when
government efforts have problems it's because of Congressional
meddling and sabotage, not because of some inherent flaw that pops
up only in public enterprise.

[Toots]

12. I dispute your assumption

Some most definitely are poorly run such as the Pentagon for instance. But most are very efficient, such as the Post Office and provide much better service than a private sector facsimile. One thing that helps make it so is that government run programs do not have to make a profit at someone's expense. Private companies have to make a Profit. Maybe you could be more specific about which government programs are poorly run so we can mention this to our Representatives and request an Audit. Ever ask for an Audit of say IBM or Microsoft? I doubt you or your Representative would get very far. IRS could do that but I don't know anyone else that could. Government run programs are responsible to the people so have to do well. Granted they may ask for assurance in triplicate that the job is being done appropriately but they make sure it is. They also pay Union Scale..Private Sector rarely does.

[Commie Pinko Dirtbag]

13. I live in Brazil. Nothing good came out of water and power privatization

NOTHING.

Higher prices. Suckier service. Fat cats rich.

[Robbien]

15. Halliburton is the poster boy of privatization

and all it has given us is a ton of greed, misuse of funds and huge inefficiencies with the huge bill being paid by the taxpayer.

[Bridget Burke]

16. Remember the California "Energy Crisis"?

Of course, it was a fake crisis engineered by crooks. But Los Angeles suffered no blackouts.

Why is Los Angeles an island of tranquillity in the electric-power crisis that has rocked California and threatens to spread across the nation?

News stories have repeatedly told us that the city's ownership and operation of its own generating stations is the principal reason. By staying clear of the state's 1996 deregulation scheme for private utilities, the Department of Water and Power was able to hold onto its power plants.

www.commondreams.org/views01/0429-06.htm

[hector459]

17. You bought the Kool-Aid too. Ask those who "contracted out" Fed

services. It cost most for less service and for poorer service. Most of the "government services" that people are unhappy about are really services that have been contracted out behind the scenes. Government project officers have their hands tied by political appointees who really run the Executive agencies. If only people in this country really would learn about how their government operates instead of relying on Rush and the RW media to tell them.

[jdj]

20. "mostly well run"...yeah, like Enron?

mmmhmm.

[jpak]

23. Not in Sacramento. SMUD has some of the lowest electricity prices in CA

SMUD customers also did not suffer like that rest of the state at the hands of the "private sector" pirates that plundered the California electricity market in 2000.

And they are leaders in conservation and renewable energy...

http://www.smud.org/

http://www.smud.org/green/

Looks like the Republican mantra that "government can't do anything right" is just another GOP fairy tale...

[TheFarseer]

27. why is it that public utilities are cheeper than privately owned?

Let's be real here. Public utilities aren't "taking a bath" or they would be forced to sell them off. If they are subsidized by the tax payer, then there is no point to them because they wouldn't really be saving the public money anyway. The difference is that the CEO isn't trying to make millions of dollars, public utilities are meant to break even and maybe make a profit that can be put into making service better or to save for a rainy day.

[SoCalDem]

14. Piratization robs a country of its natural resources and is a rip off

for the citizens of that country.. Why SHOULD an outside entity be able to come in and BUY natural resources from a few people (who may not even be acting in the public interest), and then charge the local people exorbitant rates to "buy back" their own resources??

It makes NO sense.. As citizens of a nation, ALL people should be entitled to a share of that country's assets...not just a few rich guys at the top:(..especially when they usually abscond with the money, and leave the locals to pay off debt that THEY built up in the process of stealing that wealth for themselves

[NVMojo]

18. Hello!!! Hello!! Anybody listening out there in DC?? Cheney!!! Wake up!!!

[MisterP]

19. Goody! If the social dems of South America and East Asia unite,

it could be the beginning of a nice counterweight to the Thatcher-Ayn Rand obscenities currently in dominance--maybe with a resource rebellion in Africa to boot, and Euroliberals.

[ALago1]

21. Question

Wasn't Argentina the country that essentially let itself be taken over by the University of Chicago economists who advocated pure free-market capitalism?

If so, someone at UC better tinker with their models...

[deadite]

22. If I remember correctly, that was Chile under Pinochet.

Unless they operated in both countries. Either way, I think the results were similarly "succesful"...

[Stinky The Clown]

25. Prez Precious re: Ken Lay "I may have met him once or twice"

and then this?

A few weeks after the U.S. presidential election in 1988, Terragno received a phone call from a failed Texas oilman named George W. Bush, who happened to be the son of the president-elect. "He told me he had recently returned from a campaign tour with his father," the Argentine minister recalls. The purpose of the call was clear: to push Terragno to accept the bid from Enron.

"He was taking a moment to call me because he knew that I was dealing with this," says Terragno, adding that Bush told him that he "viewed with some concern the slow pace of the Enron project." According to Terragno, the president-elect's son noted that a deal with Enron "would be very favorable for Argentina and its relations with the United States."

Yet another lie by our Prancing Preznit Precious to add to the list that would now make a book as thick as the Manhattan yellow pages.

[ReadTomPaine]

26. Shouldn't key utilities be run in this fashion simply for reasons of risk?

It's a security issue in my view. These places shouldn't only be run by the government without regard to ROI, they should be under the protection of the military and considered high security zones esp. in times of emergency (theoretical or otherwise). It's critical infrastructure first and foremost in my mind, and needs to be protected. This sort of thing is why we have government in the first place.

RTP

[struggle4progress]

28. kick