The Economist published an article about the Indian government selling state assets:
https://archive.ph/4LovK
Privatisation of government entities seemed like one of the easiest 'wins' towards a more libertarian situation of affairs.
But it's a bit complex and very challenging to pull off, even if the party in power has a somewhat libertarian leaning.
Right from the get go, there'll be extreme opposition from labour/employee unions. The narrative of being pro-crony will be attached to the ruling disposition. This means loss of votes. No politician would want that if he wants to remain in power.
Thing is, if privatisation is also not accompanied by deregulation and thus getting out of the way of potential competing firms from emerging, it would be tantamount to a transfer of monopoly privileges from bureaucrats to cronies.
So union folks would then think they were justified in opposing privatisation outright.
There is also the challenge of convincing potential private buyers that the assets being sold are worth buying in the first place after years of being mismanaged. Finding buyers would be very difficult.
Otoh, if the entity is performing well on paper through mergers, subsidies and infusions from the state exchequer, there'll be arguments that they need not be privatised and that the industry need not be liberalised at all.
Even if the privatisation goes through, prices might not come down, since they have to be brought back to what is economical by the new owners whereas previously it was kept below market rates by the government to satisfy voters or whatever political goals they had.
Not to mention the upward pressure on prices due to fiat money, making it harder to convince civilians that privatisation is the way to go.
Essentially, if the goal is to bring prices down, make the industry more efficient overall, improve the quality of services and reduce capital consumption, privatisation would need to be accompanied by deregulation and a rewrite of the laws governing the industry. And a shift to a sound money system as well.
sachin
npub1xn…43qnl
2026-10-05 16:42:45 UTC
Author Public Key
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2026-10-05 16:42:45 UTCEvent JSON
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"content": "The Economist published an article about the Indian government selling state assets:\n\nhttps://archive.ph/4LovK\n\nPrivatisation of government entities seemed like one of the easiest 'wins' towards a more libertarian situation of affairs.\n\nBut it's a bit complex and very challenging to pull off, even if the party in power has a somewhat libertarian leaning.\n\nRight from the get go, there'll be extreme opposition from labour/employee unions. The narrative of being pro-crony will be attached to the ruling disposition. This means loss of votes. No politician would want that if he wants to remain in power.\n\nThing is, if privatisation is also not accompanied by deregulation and thus getting out of the way of potential competing firms from emerging, it would be tantamount to a transfer of monopoly privileges from bureaucrats to cronies. \n\nSo union folks would then think they were justified in opposing privatisation outright. \n\nThere is also the challenge of convincing potential private buyers that the assets being sold are worth buying in the first place after years of being mismanaged. Finding buyers would be very difficult.\n\nOtoh, if the entity is performing well on paper through mergers, subsidies and infusions from the state exchequer, there'll be arguments that they need not be privatised and that the industry need not be liberalised at all. \n\nEven if the privatisation goes through, prices might not come down, since they have to be brought back to what is economical by the new owners whereas previously it was kept below market rates by the government to satisfy voters or whatever political goals they had.\n\nNot to mention the upward pressure on prices due to fiat money, making it harder to convince civilians that privatisation is the way to go.\n\nEssentially, if the goal is to bring prices down, make the industry more efficient overall, improve the quality of services and reduce capital consumption, privatisation would need to be accompanied by deregulation and a rewrite of the laws governing the industry. And a shift to a sound money system as well. \n\n",
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