Nobel Prize Alert: Robert Reich has discovered a new economic law:
"Without the government as competition, the private sector has little incentive to improve."
This is truly breathtaking. As it turns out, it's not the private sector that drives innovation, growth and efficiency, it's the government.
In other words, we should credit the U.S. Postal Service for the innovation and efficiencies that have been gained by FedEx and UPS. They don't get the credit--they'd be big, fat, inefficient and wasteful were it not for the competition provided by the U.S. Postal Service.
Give me a break.
I'd like anyone, anywhere, to show me an example of where the government has competed along side of the private sector. Government doesn't compete with the private sector in any industry. Government gives itself all sorts of advantages, and tilts the playing field to its favor and against the interests of the private sector in the name of what's best for "the people."
Whether we're talking about municipal broadband networks, or city-owned hotels, or health care, government doesn't "compete" with the private sector--government drowns the private sector.