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Bill: Privatization
Details
Submitted by[?]: Grand National Party
Status[?]: passed
Votes: This is an ordinary bill. It requires more yes votes than no votes. This bill will not pass any sooner than the deadline.
Voting deadline: January 3423
Description[?]:
| Madam Speaker, the parties of the newly-appointed government have campaigned on the premise to promote the free market, which is incompatible with state monopolies or government-decreed expropriation of hard-working citizens. Thus we propose to end state-sanctioned theft and restore consumer choice and true competition to boost our country's economic prosperity in several crucial areas. Adrienne LeCoultre-Overstraten MP Member for Valdor Prime Minister of Dranland |
Proposals
Article 1
Proposal[?] to change Eminent Domain.
Old value:: The government may seize private property for vital government works.
Current: The policy regarding eminent domain is left to local governments.
Proposed: The government may not seize private property.
Article 2
Proposal[?] to change The government's policy concerning the post office
Old value:: There is a nationalised post office. Private post office agencies are allowed to exist, and the services provided by them are not regulated.
Current: There is a nationalised post office agency. Private post offices are allowed to exist but the services provided by them are regulated.
Proposed: Only private post agencies exist, and the services they provide are unregulated.
Article 3
Proposal[?] to change Train Operating Companies (TOC).
Old value:: There is a single publicly owned TOC.
Current: Private companies operate regional TOC's. The national service is provided by a publicly owned, national TOC.
Proposed: Private companies operate TOCs throughout the country.
Debate
These messages have been posted to debate on this bill:
| Date | 23:41:23, January 06, 2013 CET | From | Democratic Socialist Party | To | Debating the Privatization |
| Message | Madam Speaker, at a time of mounting unrest in Dranland, a radical neo-conservative privatisation program is the last thing we need! Taking away compulsory purchase powers will make it almost impossible for governments to implement important projects like the construction of new roads and railway lines. Privatising the trains will lead to consumers being ripped-off and service quality collapsing. It will also probably mean the reintroducion of class segregation in train carriages (ie. first and second-class seats). Privatising postal services will similarly see our people inflicted with inferior services for higher prices. In rural areas where postal services are not profitable, it will probably deny people access to any postal service at all. The Grand National Party say they are opposed to the extremists in Dranland, but they are effectively acting as recruiting sergeants for those extremist movements. Policies like these are dividing and alienating people, not bringing them together. Cadfael Maddocks MP (Leader of the DSP) |
| Date | 00:08:55, January 07, 2013 CET | From | Grand National Party | To | Debating the Privatization |
| Message | Madam Speaker, Maddock's rambling tirade proves that he might very well be the poet and esthete he displays himself as at every occasion, but he is far from even understanding most basic economic principles - quite similar to many socialists, I have to admit. Because narrow-minded communists like Mr Maddocks embrace the ridiculous notion that society will plunge into passivity and decline without the guidance of the government, they find it impossible to imagine that road and railway lines will be built without shamelessly stealing capital from hard-earning citizens for services they might not even personally require. In a free market, however, thanks to a multitude of contenders competing for satisfying an even greater multitude of demands, competition, innovation and, most important, consumer choice - which does not exist under the economic dictatorship Mr Maddock's predecessor has established - gurantee that prices decline while quality is constantly improved. It is outright illogical, nonsensual and simply clueless to claim that issuing a government-protected monopoly a blank check to force consumers to subsidize their work regardless if they're satisfied with its output or not will benefit anyone except fat cat bureaucrats and monopolists. This government will make sure that the consumers are freed from the despotic regime that your party has established, Mr Maddock! Adrienne LeCoultre-Overstraten MP Member for Valdor Prime Minister of Dranland |
| Date | 00:20:28, January 07, 2013 CET | From | Democratic Socialist Party | To | Debating the Privatization |
| Message | Madam Speaker, I am sure the Right Honourable lady means no offence, but I do resent being called a "communist". I am not nor ever have been a communist; I am a democratic socialist - and very, very proud of it, too! Admittedly I have spent most of my life as a poet and peace activist, which means I lack experience of running a very large economic organisation. However, I am familiar enough with the workings of rail and road expansion projects to understand just how difficult it can be when a private landlord refuses to sell up - even when offered very generous terms. Without compulsory purchase powers, just one stubborn landlord could hold up vital expansion projects for years or even decades! We in the Democratic Socialist Party are serious about developing Dranland's transport system and we are serious about building more rail lines and more roads where we believe they are really needed. If the Grand National Party are serious about this too, then they need to reconsider their position on this issue. Cadfael Maddocks MP (Leader of the DSP) |
| Date | 00:36:37, January 07, 2013 CET | From | Grand National Party | To | Debating the Privatization |
| Message | Madam Speaker, I apologize for calling Mr Maddocks' a communist if he feels it was unjustified, however communism is marked by the absence of private property rights. Private property exists to create a sphere within which its owner is protected from arbitary interventions from an outer aggressor, hence it only exists if it is inviolable and universal. Allowing the state to dictate which goals are desirable enough to override this autonomy is thus a more subtle, yet still dangerous implementation of ideas that might not exactly mirror communism, yet precede it. Adrienne LeCoultre-Overstraten MP Member for Valdor Prime Minister of Dranland |
| Date | 18:44:35, January 07, 2013 CET | From | Democratic Socialist Party | To | Debating the Privatization |
| Message | Madam Speaker, I can assure the Right Honourable lady that using compulsory purchase powers in order to carry out, say, a railway expansion program, will not be a stepping stone towards Dranland becoming an authoritarian communist state. This kind of thing is done all over Terra without this happening. What the Grand National Party are saying, in effect, is that it should be impossible for governments to expand Dranland's existing road and rail networks - that is the practical consequences of denying compulsory purchase powers to the state. Cadfael Maddocks MP (Leader of the DSP) |
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Voting
| Vote | Seats | ||||||
| yes |
Total Seats: 136 | ||||||
| no |
Total Seats: 91 | ||||||
| abstain | Total Seats: 0 |
| Random fact: Information about the population of each country can be found on the Population Information thread: http://forum.particracy.net/viewtopic.php?f=5&t=8663 |
| Random quote: The Wolfsheim Virus is not a real actual disease in the conventional medical sense of the term. Rather, it is a cluster of symptoms which are just part of the general socio-economic disease that is capitalism. The main symptoms the sufferers are experiencing are a direct result of capitalist poverty, as in malnutrition, poor housing and so on, combined with psycho-somatic symptoms which are a direct consequence of the contradictions and stresses which are inherent to the capitalist system. ~ Friedrich Pfeiffer, General Secretary of the Dorvish Communist Party |