[sustran] Private Monopoly and Vested Political Interests in SA v.3

[Wendell Cox]

Some notes below...


>> > 1. It provides more than 40 percent of the black work trips --- a non-SOV
>> > market share not matched by any mode in western Europe or the US.
>> >
>> > 2. The kombi taxi industry has political power --- which means they must be
>> > appeased. Just like the transit unions in the U --- whose political power
>> > has routinely violated the interests of transit customers and the cities
>> > they serve by providing (shall we say rationing) services through the
>> > imposition of higher than market costs.
>			    ^^^^^^^^^^ vide infra
>					Or take the NYC Transport Workers
>> > Union, which is standing in the way of expansion and development of the van
>> > industry, which many people find superior in terms of mobility compared to
>> > the fixed route service. It is no wonder that people seek alternatives, and
>> > begin commuting by car. All of this is to say that political reality is
>> > political reality. The kombi taxi industry has political power. The US
>> > transit unions have political power. There seems to be little in recorded
>> > history to suggest that powerful political interests are inclined to put
>the
>> > good of society ahead of their own interests. Too bad that in all of this
>> > the people and our cities are the victims.
>> >
>
>Lots of thugs have power - and in this forum the taxi wars have been
>referred to as Mafia type turf wars. I don't think people usually
>buy statements like "the Mafia must be appeased."
>
>You seem to regret the power of the unions and the taxi warlords,
>but I see nothing regreting the power of consumption driven profit
>generators. Perhaps we might spare a moment to note that it's too bad that
>our descendant are the victims of these powerful interests which
>constrain our choices by protecting their 'markets'.
>
>As for all this talk about 'markets' - I hardly expect a better reception
>than for denouncing  god to a misionary - but this is all just vague
>talk some people are brought up on till they start speaking the same
>words, without comprehension or capacity to doubt. The truth is that
>there is no division of economic life into 'market' and 'non market'
>forces. Everything is competing power, appealing by various means
>to individual and collective power, beliefs, and motivation. This doesn't
>mean we should not discuss values, or promote certain ones ahead of
>others - but pretending that the things business owners like are 'free'
>and 'market' forces, while others are 'interventionist', 'statist',
>'state run', 'centrally managed' or otherwise worthy of perjorative
>labeling is hardly accurate, nor credible in the face of detailed
>questioning. 

Business, when scrutinized, exhibits little more passion for the market than
those who outrightly oppose it. It seems to be human nature to want monopoly
for ourselves and competition for others. I have intimated no preference for
business owners over labor unions --- my preference is consumers over both.

Profit driven planning, especially in the recent climate
>of 'consolidation' (monopolisation) is in fact many of the things
>it pretends to be the cure for, vide supra.

Would be interested in elaboration on the consolitation/monopolisation
point. Have heard that it is going on, but heard little of the impact. What
is your perspective?

As regards all above....
>
My point is not to suggest that political power is inappropriate, or to
condone the illegal activities of any --- kombi taxi, trade union, business
or otherwise. It was simply to point out that vested political interests
routinely subvert public purposes, and we should expect that. That should in
no way dilute our commitment to maximizing public rather than private good
from public expenditures.

>> > None of this is to retreat from my position that the kombi taxi industry
>> > represents a very important resource in SA ---
>
>But this is the problem - not the solution. In a more functional
>society, people's best options would be better, and the constraints
>you cite below are not imposed by fate - they're the result of
>policies the ANC pursues through choice - policies we can evaluate
>and lobby for and against.

You should seek to accomplish your public policy vision just as I seek mine.
My point had to do with politial reality and the fact that politics works,
in general, the same everywhere. It all has to do with power, as you suggest
above.

>						 it seems to me that the
>> > appropriate direction of policy is to make the best use of what is there
>> > already, while supplemnting that with things that make sense and truly
>> > improve transport in the urban areas. All of that has to be pursued in the
>> > context of the financial limitations facing the central, provincial and
>> > local governments.
>> >
>Another standard slight of hand. I asumed lobbying for changes in policy
>is not a foul. Yet when the prevailing 'limitations' are not unsuited to
>ones argument, it's easy to throw up ones hands and say one 'has to'
>work within the present situation. As mentioned by others, employers should
>pay to make their employees mobile, either through taxes, which the ANC
>is pathetically reluctant to impose, or by making employers pay directly for
>transit for their workers, with some protection to prevent them from getting
>it back directly by renegotiating wages downwards.
>
>Actually - the ANC is presently committing grave transgressions against
>the people who gave it power. There has been little more than appeasement
>of big business, local and international, and many people in the street will
>confirm this view. Another clip from the M&G: Note R1 = $0.20. Now you
>go and pay several rand for a taxi ride. The government and employers
>should make transit available FREE to workers below a reasonable
>threshold PERIOD. The argument for this conclusion follows:
>
And now for the :"kicker" --- doubtless e-mail brimstone will rain down upon
me....

Thank God the Mandella government has pursued the general market oriented
policies that it has. Unfortunately the promises made in the decades before
apartheid came to an end would have led to the same type of economic
distress that plagues most of the rest of sub-Saharan Africa. For SA to
emerge as a fully first world nation (instead of a 1/5 first world nation)
will require investment and an economic "pie" that is different. Just
splitting up what is there would barely raise the economic status of the
poor, while nullifying any real prospect of economic growth. This is not to
suggest that everything Mandella-ANC has done is right --- from this
distance I obviously dont know everything they've done. But they have
frankly shocked the economic and political world by the stablity they have
created. South Africa's wealth could have, in effect, been wired out almost
overnight.

As regards 53 percent poverty... How does that compare to Mozanbique, either
Congo?, etc. Why is it that South Africans seem in no hurry to emigrate to
Zimbabwe or Ruanda, but the immigration pressures from the north have been
substantial?

Meanwhile our Republicans are searching hard for a candidate to run in 2000
against Al Gore for President. Unfortunately, our constitution requires
presidents to have been born in the US --- Mandella would be a good bit
better than anyone on the horizon.

And to state my point on kombi-taxis in another way --- we shouldn't be
paying as society (through taxes) for what we can get free. I reiterate the
view that the solution, to the extent that there is one, is to use, correct
and supplement the present situation. A subsidy program on its own will not
necessarily improve mobility. The US experience has shown that the bulk of
public transport operating subsidies have been captured by employees of the
transit systems (managers and operating employees), with little incremental
benefit to riders. I am confident that the recipients of subsidies in SA
would be no less inventive.

 Best regards,

Wendell Cox



>
>						HALF OF SA LIVES IN
>                                               POVERTY ABOUT 53%
>                                               of South Africa's population
>                                               lives below the R301 per
>                                               month poverty line,
>                                               according to statistics
>                                               released on Wednesday at
>                                               the launch of a nationwide
>                                               campaign to give a voice to
>                                               South Africa's poor. The
>                                               Speak Out on Poverty
>                                               campaign, organised by the
>                                               Human Rights and Gender
>                                               Equality Commissions and
>                                               the South African NGO
>                                               Coalition, will consist of 10
>                                               public hearings throughout
>                                               the country from March 17
>                                               to June 4. The results will be
>                                               submitted to Parliament and
>                                               used to draw up a "poverty
>                                               budget". Campaign
>                                               organisers said in South
>                                               Africa the ratio of a
>                                               managing director's salary to
>                                               that of the lowest paid
>                                               worker is 100:1, compared to
>                                               7:1 in Japan. It is estimated
>                                               that 65% of SA's adult
>                                               population is illiterate and at
>                                               least 12-million South
>                                               Africans do not have access
>                                               to potable water inside their
>                                               dwellings or on site.
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
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