Imagine a crappy little railway station that took thirty years to build, and in which the approval process cost more than the station itself. Or a shitty little tunnel under a harbor that went far overbudget and overtime, because private contractors were bickering with the government for years. Welcome to deregulation. What little national steel built or re-enforced infrastructure we have, was laid at a time when the government was capable of planning anything. You privatise this critical shit, and you get burned in the long run.
I can give you an example of a very close to home fiasco (for me). Basically our area floods constantly. The solution lies in building a little 1-2m high retaining wall a few km's in length along the coast of a lake, and fixing up drainage along the roads. The government has offered to look into it, if every household gives them $7,000 (there are around 3,000 households in the area) and this is on top of the increased land rights meant to deal with flooding mitigation. And here is the cherry on top...this money would be used to contract out some firms who would iron out and finalise the plan, not build the wall itself. Government would merely redo the road drainage. Time spent for the roadmap 'PLAN'? Think 20-30 years before construction could even begin. Any normal regime, federal, state or local could do it in about a week with chump change lying around in some local officials office. I'd be happy to dig and shift bricks for fucking free on weekends if they would let us; our homes are at stake-but no, they need a plan and exclusive $36.80/hour laborers employed by the council.
Oh and the final insult, they made the problem worse...a few years ago they allowed a company to dig out a channel, broadening it and allowing more water to fill the lake during high tide. The company then sold the sand to the government, which then used it to shore up beaches in bumfuckville where nobody lives far up the coast where sea level is far lower and flooding is not a concern.
Jesus fucking christ. A flood of ineptitude.
Wasn't aware that the Government had nationalised the Steel industry?
Not our government. State owned firms from other countries and on their behalf are doing a good job of it though-across all levels of governance in this autopilot country. Perth might as well be an independent kingdom, a vassal of a Chinese company based in guangdong province that dominates the area.
- By litwin
- By Rancid
- By JohnRawls