>governments are generally incompetent at building and maintaining power grids.
When you strip out the market discipline imposed by competition, governments are usually more efficient than equivalent private sector operations.
Privately run monopolies are - similar to governments - only kept in check by democratic accountability. The difference with a privately run regulated monopoly is that that democratic accountability is one step removed.
As you said, it's quasi private - because the system would collapse under the weight of unchecked rent seeking behavior if it weren't heavily regulated.
>Governments have exactly the same incentives.
Believing that elections and power seeking does not motivate government decision makers is an odd opinion.
When you strip out the market discipline imposed by competition, governments are usually more efficient than equivalent private sector operations.
Privately run monopolies are - similar to governments - only kept in check by democratic accountability. The difference with a privately run regulated monopoly is that that democratic accountability is one step removed.
As you said, it's quasi private - because the system would collapse under the weight of unchecked rent seeking behavior if it weren't heavily regulated.
>Governments have exactly the same incentives.
Believing that elections and power seeking does not motivate government decision makers is an odd opinion.