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Privatization: A Very Public Affair
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11130 |
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Section : |
CURRENT ISSUES
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| Issue
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3 / 1986 |
2,600 Words |
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Lynn Scarlett
Lynn Scarlett is the research director of the Reason
Foundation and is currently overseeing the foundation's
project on privatization in the U.S. |
On a single day in November 1984, two million Britons became stockholders in British Telecom.
The mammoth government-owned communications firm went on the auction block in one of the largest stock offerings in British history. By day's end, Britain's stock-owned racks had nearly doubled. Even more notable, the sale marked a major success of British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher's privatization crusade.
Privatization--transferring public programs and assets to the private sector--is the centerpiece of Thatcher's economic policy. Decades of commitment to building a modern welfare state had swollen Britain's government expenditures. The government consumed, at one point, a full 48 percent of Britain's Gross National Product (GNP).
Even high taxes could not meet the onerous demands for public funds and Britain's treasury deficit loomed large. Private businesses languished under the burden of high taxes. Nationalized industries, shielded from the pressures of competition, stagnated and ate up scarce public funds.
Into this bleak economic landscape came Thatcher in 1979. since first launching her privatization policy, Thatcher's Conservative Party has overseen the shedding of hundreds of government services and assets, in whole or in part, to the private sector. British Rail sold off rail hotels, government-owned British Leyland sold its tractor and truck division.
Sale of shares in Leyland's Jaguar division created such fervor that fights
... (1995 of 16406 Characters)
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