On 2006-11-25 01:41:16 +0000, John Beardmore said:

In message , Andy Hall writes
On 2006-11-25 00:51:47 +0000, John Beardmore said:

OK - so the situation is analogous to private education.
You can send your children to private school, but if you do, you don't
get a tax rebate.

You should.

You can have no children at all, and still get no tax rebate.

Again, you should.

Well - maybe.


There is plenty of history of this kind of thing, but people don't
generally think of state education as a monopoly.

In practical terms, to those who could otherwise afford private
education if they didn't have to pay that proportion of council tax, it
is.

Yes - but in that sense, not having a Rolls Royce is a monopoly thing.

Not influenced by taxation in that sense, though.





The same is true of education and of healthcare. The difference
with those is that people view those rather more seriously and are
willing to pay twice to get a proper service.
Quite so - demonstrating that it's not a monopoly.

The local authority collects money from every household. Part of this
goes towards refuse collection.

- It does not offer a choice of level of service.

- It does not offer a choice of refuse collection company

- It does not allow its customers a part in the selection of the single
chosen company

- It does not provide a discount on council tax if the customer wants
to shop elsewhere.


It's a monopoly in terms of profile

?


and effect,

Except you do have the option to have any licensed agent take your
waste if you want them to.

Fine. Then they should be in a position to compete in the market for
weekly collection as well as delivery and collection of large skips.
I should be in a position that if I choose one, I opt out of paying the
council tax amount for it.





and a poorly run one at that.

In some respects.

I guess to some extent this situation has perhaps arisen to address a
need from an era when the private sector did not offer waste collection
services, but imperfect though the present situation is, I'm not sure
that having three providers working the same streets would be more
efficient, reduce congestion, or otherwise be too smart.


I'd settle for 3 licensed operators with each having a different
collection day on a given street.